Southwest Airlines will keep its 34 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft out of its flight schedule through May, according to a memo to pilots on Friday, USA Today reported.
The move aims to reduce the travel impact on passengers and crew by minimizing last-minute cancellations.
"Now that the decision has been made, we can construct our schedule without those (Max 8) flights well in advance in hopes to minimize the daily disruptions,'' the memo from Southwest Pilots Association President Jon Weaks and Southwest vice president of flight operations Alan Kasher stated.
Southwest recently announced that it's already been forced to cancel 2,800 flights as a result of the Max 8 grounding on March 13. Meanwhile, American Airlines is canceling 90 flights per day through April 24 after removing the Max 8 from its fleet.
"We're publishing a revised schedule for April and May that is built around the currently available Southwest fleet and intends to reduce drastically last-minute trip disruptions and same-day cancellations which have affected our customers and employees since the grounding of the Max,'' Southwest said in a statement.
"Independent of the timeline for a return of service of Max aircraft, the flight schedule revision is about returning to normal operation and restoring reliability that our customers and our crews deserve and expect from Southwest.''
Boeing recently upgraded the software for their MAX 8 and announced that it's ready to be reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which plans to review and potentially approve it in April.
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