Boeing's crisis is eating into the profits of airline companies across the world. Southwest Airlines, which has been troubled since the grounding of Boeing 737 Max, on Tuesday, once again delayed the return of the aircraft. The company now projects the return of the aircraft to its fleet not before April 13.
Southwest Airlines said this in its Tuesday morning regulatory filing. The new comes hours after Boeing announced that it was halting the production of its troubled 737 Max starting January, as the Federal Aviation Administration refused to allow airline companies to fly the jet before 2020.
Southwest Airlines' decision to further push the return of the aircraft comes days after the airline company reached a partial compensation deal of $125 billion, owing to the losses it incurred because of the grounding of the 737 Max.
Southwest Airlines the biggest casualty
Southwest Airlines had earlier put all its 737 Max flights off schedule till March 6, 2020. Earlier last week, American Airlines too put the jet off its schedule till April 7, 2020. Southwest particularly seems to be bleeding the most owing to the ground of the aircraft.
Southwest Airlines has 34 Boeing 737 Max aircrafts in its fleet, the highest by any airline company in the world. Since the grounding the company has cancelled 175 weekday flights. The company has since then been paying more fuel costs, as it has been flying more fuel-consuming planes in place of 737 Max.
On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines in a statement said, "The revision will proactively remove roughly 300 weekday flights from our schedule out of our total peak-day schedule of more than 4,000 daily flights."
Boeing's crisis makes airline companies bleed
Boeing's highest-selling 737 Max has been grounded across the world since March following two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia that killed 346 people. The aircraft maker had earlier said that it expected the return of the aircraft in December. However, Boeing's dreams were shattered after the US Federal Aviation Authority last week said that it will not give Boeing any approval to fly 737 Max until the end of 2019.
The grounding of the aircraft has been affecting airlines companies. Southwest is the biggest operator of the 737 Max and this has been bleeding the most. However, the airline company said that it was contemplating pushing the return of the aircraft to its schedule for quite some time and has not been in response to Boeing's decision to suspend production of the aircraft for the time being.
Boeing 737 Max is a fuel efficient aircraft and plays an important role in the fleet of low-cost airlines. Naturally, ballooning fuel costs have now started hitting these airline companies, which has made many initiate talks with Boeing for compensation.
