American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) pulled the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 Max from its schedules until mid-January, delaying its return longer than any U.S. airline, as the prolonged grounding of the troubled plane disrupts year-end holiday travel.
Regulators have not said when they’ll allow airlines to operate Max again, the plane not having been allowed to fly since mid-March, after two crashes within five months of each other.
The grounding has forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights, driven up costs and dented airlines’ profits. American said Wednesday that the more- than-9,000 flights it canceled in the third quarter reduced its pretax income in the period by about $140 million.
Boeing has said it expects the Federal Aviation Administration to clear the planes to fly in the fourth quarter.
The company has developed a software fix for the planes after crash investigators implicated a flight-control program that malfunctioned, repeatedly pushing the nose of the Max planes down in both disasters, but the FAA hasn’t approved it yet.
American said the schedule change will force it to cancel around 140 flights a day. The airline previously expected the planes to return to its fleet for commercial service in early December, and like other carriers, has had to repeatedly postpone the jet’s return to its schedules.
Southwest Airlines struck the planes from its schedules until Jan. 5, while United Airlines expects them back Dec. 19.
American shares got lift of 51 cents or 1.9%, to $26.77 early Wednesday, while Boeing shares gained 98 cents to $375.28
