July 14 (UPI) — American Airlines extended its cancelations of Boeing’s grounded 737 Max planes through Nov. 2 on Sunday.
The airline announced that about 115 flights per day will be canceled through Nov. 2 as it communicates with the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Safety Board and other regulatory authorities awaiting updates to the aircraft’s software following a pair of deadly crashes.
“American Airlines remains confident that impending software updates to the Boeing 737 Max, along with new training Boeing is developing in coordination with our union partners, will lead to recertification of the aircraft this year,” the airline said.
On Friday, fellow -U.S. airline United Airlines extended its grounding of the 737 Max through Nov. 3, canceling 40 to 45 flights each day in July, 60 flights a day in August, 70 a day in September and 95 a day in October.
U.S. airlines and individual nations and companies throughout the world began canceling flights using the Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 during the spring after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed on March 10. The crash came five months after another 737 Max crash in Indonesia, Lion Air Flight 610. Together, the crashes killed nearly 350 people.
The crashes have been linked to the aircraft model’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.
