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Southwest, the largest operator of 737 MAX airplanes worldwide,
said it would now keep the aircraft off its flight schedule
until Aug. 10, instead of through June 6.
The revision will remove roughly 371 weekday flights from its
total peak-day schedule of more than 4,000 daily flights, which
is about 10% higher than the 330 weekly flights it said were
being cut through June 6.
American Airlines Group Inc <AAL.O> and United Airlines Co <UAL.O>
have both canceled flights into June.
Boeing did not immediately comment, but said last Thursday it
was standing by its "present mid-2020 estimate for return to
service" of the best-selling MAX, which has been grounded
worldwide since March after two fatal crashes killed 346 people.
The Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment.
One unresolved issue remains over whether Boeing will need to
adopt design changes to address two bundles of wiring that may
be too close together, which potentially could lead to a short
circuit and a crash if pilots do not respond appropriately.
The issue has been under discussion by the FAA and Boeing for
more than a month and it is not clear when it will be resolved.
Last week, Boeing said it was continuing to "perform the
appropriate analysis including lab testing, fleet data
assessment and third party reviews." It said it was "premature
to speculate as to whether this analysis will lead to any design
changes."
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in
Washington; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Bernadette
Baum)
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