MONTREAL, CANADA – Air Canada, Canada’s flagship carrier, has given up hopes to resume its flights with the Boeing 737 MAX in 2019. Air Canada announced it will remove 737 MAX flights from its schedule until at least early January, 2020. Earlier on July 25, Southwest also removed 737 MAX flights from its schedule till 2020.

Air Canada is scrapping 737 MAX flights from its schedule until January 8, 2020 – due to uncertainty regarding the model’s return to service date – the airline revealed together with its latest financial results, posted on July 30, 2019.

Southwest has extended flight schedule reductions for the 737 MAX through January 5, 2019, as stated in the airline’s second quarter 2019 report on July 25, 2019.

“In our planning, we will be removing the Boeing 737 MAX from our schedule until at least January 8th, 2020…” Calin Rovinescu – President and CEO of Air Canada – said in an official news release. “At present, we have no visibility on reliable timing for the return to service of the Boeing 737 MAX as we await regulatory approvals.”

If the aircraft were returned to service earlier than expected, the company “would look for opportunities to have some enter the fleet for either replacement flying or as back-ups”, Rovinescu said. This is something that is currently being done with other aircraft in Air Canada’s fleet to cover flights served on the MAX.

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(Photo: Acefitt CC BY-SA 4.0)