American Airlines has announced plans to return the Boeing 737 MAX to service for passenger flights by the end of 2020.
The airline is currently awaiting certification of the Boeing 737 MAX from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ahead of a move to return the grounded jets to its passenger aircraft fleet.
The airline plans to operate a daily 737 MAX flight between Miami and New York from 29 December to 4 January.
The Boeing 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since March 2019, after two crashes — Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — tragically killed 346 passengers.
“We remain in contact with the FAA and Boeing on the certification process and we’ll continue to update our plans based on when the aircraft is certified,” American Airlines said in a statement.
However, the FAA recently reiterated that it has no timeline for approving the Boeing jet’s return to service, adding it would only lift the grounding order after FAA safety experts are satisfied that the aircraft meets certification standards.
Revised training procedures for the 737 MAX have been issued by the FFA, and are open for public consultation until 2 November.
American Airlines stressed that prospective passengers would be informed if they are travelling on a Boeing 737 MAX.
The news comes just a week after Boeing revealed that it lost another three orders for its 737 MAX in September, and received no new commercial orders.
Boeing delivered a total of 11 aircraft in September, less than half of what it delivered in the same month in 2019, and one less than it delivered in August.
September’s figure brings the total number of deliveries in the first nine months of 2020 to 98 aircraft, down from 301 in the same period last year.
