Southwest Airlines is again pushing back the date it expects to be able to fly the grounded Boeing 737 Max jet, meaning more flight cancellations.
Southwest said Thursday that it is taking the plane out of its schedule through Nov. 2, a month longer than previously planned.
Without the plane, Southwest said it will drop about 180 flights a day — about 4.5% of its normal schedule — up from 150 a day.
Southwest is also delaying the addition of new pilots as a result of the Max grounding.
The airline told pilots last week that it was postponing two classes for new-pilot training and two for pilots upgrading to captain. The classes were to begin in September, October and December.
A spokesman for United said Thursday that the airline continues to conduct classes for new pilots. A spokeswoman for American Airlines said the Max is not affecting its hiring or training plans. Last month, however, Icelandair said it would lay off 24 pilots and cancel plans to hire 21 more because of the grounding.
The plane has been grounded worldwide since mid-March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.
Boeing originally expected to submit a final recertification plan to U.S. regulators in late March. The plane's return, however, has been pushed back several times, most recently after FAA pilots found a new flaw while testing Boeing software changes in a flight simulator.
That discovery prompted Boeing to say in late June that it expected to present its proposed fix to the FAA "in the September timeframe." FAA approval, new training for pilots — the exact nature of which hasn't been determined — and checking jets that have been parked will take several more weeks. Some analysts believe the plane won't fly again until 2020.
Boeing is still building Max jets, although at a reduced pace, but it halted deliveries of completed planes in March.
The longer the situation lasts, the more flights per day will be dropped. In March, Southwest had 34 Max jets — the most of any airline — and expected to get more as the year went on. The Dallas-based carrier has about 750 planes. All are various types of Boeing 737s.
David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter
JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.
The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.
Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.
Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.
The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.
A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
