Southwest to keep Boeing 737 MAX off schedules through May instead of April 20: company memo

[March 30, 2019]    SEATTLE (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co said on Friday it was pulling its Boeing Co 737 MAX jets from flight schedules through May, extending its earlier timeline from April 20, according to a company memorandum seen by Reuters.

A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

"This will impact the lines in May, but, now that the decision has been made, we can construct our schedule without those flights well in advance in hopes to minimize the daily disruptions," the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and the company said in the joint memorandum.

Boeing's top-selling 737 MAX jetliner has been grounded in the wake of two deadly crashes involving that model in five months, one in Indonesia last October and another on March 10 in Ethiopia.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; editing by Grant McCool)

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