Back in March, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded after a tragic Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed, killing all 157 people on board. But, yes—there’s still a chance your flights are going to be delayed until early September if you’re flying American.
The airline’s cancellations of multiple flights on Sunday, June 9 brought to light just what passengers can expect up until September 3, ABC News reports:
The airline said it removed the grounded 737 Max from its schedule through Sept. 3, 2019, about three weeks later than previously announced.
Passengers whose flights were not scheduled on the 737 Max could also face cancellations, the airline said, signaling that it plans to prioritize high-passenger flights.
Yeah—you’re not even safe from cancellations if you’re not flying on a 737 MAX. The airline is prioritizing high-passenger travel routes, which means passengers on smaller flights could suffer a cancellation as the airline poaches crews or planes to serve larger flights.
In practice, American is estimating that 115 of their 6,700 flights will be cancelled per day, CNBC reports.
On the bright side (if you can consider it a bright side), American Airlines is offering customers whose flights have been cancelled a full refund if they don’t want to rebook. I don’t know who’s booking flights that they don’t really need to take, but at least the option is there in case you are that person.
Boeing has issued software fixes for what it believes were the problems that caused the crashes, but the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve them. Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg believes the planes will be back in action by the end of the year—but until then, passengers can likely expect more cancellations and delays.