American Airlines will extend cancellations of around 115 daily flights into early November, the carrier said on Sunday.
The cancellations are a result of the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX planes, and come after the Federal Aviation Administration discovered last month another flaw in the model, which will likely take until September at the earliest to fix.
“American Airlines remains confident that impending software updates to the Boeing 737 MAX, along with the new training elements Boeing is developing in coordination with our union partners, will lead to recertification of the aircraft this year,” American Airlines said in a statement on Sunday.
The airline, which is the second largest MAX operator in the U.S., initially planned to keep the 737 model off schedule until the beginning of September. After the grounding of the Boeing jets, American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, had to substitute other aircraft for its busiest flights and cancel or suspend a number of other flights.
According to some analysts, the grounding of the MAX 737 planes could last until the end of the year. American Airlines plans to fly without the Boeing jets until November 2.
Southwest Airlines Co, the world’s largest MAX operator, has removed the aircraft from its scheduling through October 1, and United Airlines Holdings until November 3.
Boeing hopes that it could improve protection by introducing a new software upgrade and new pilot training that would prevent the error which led to the two fatal crashes involving its aircraft.
American is expected to see an increase in its revenues due to its planes flying at full capacity, although the carrier cut its annual profit forecast in April, projecting an estimated $350 million hit from the MAX groundings.
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