American cancels 737 Max flights through Sept. 3: 115 flights per day

WASHINGTON — American Airlines announced it will extend flight cancellations through Sept. 3 for Boeing’s embattled 737 Max, a new passenger jet that has been out of commission for almost three months after its flight control software played a role in two deadly crashes. The cancellations will affect about 115 flights a day, the airline said.

The move suggests airlines are planning for a 737 Max reentry that will take longer than initially expected. The three U.S. airlines that operate Max jets, American, Southwest and United, have been anxiously awaiting a planned software update and pilot-training regimen designed to make the plane safe to fly. An FAA directive issued in March initially called for the software fix to be finished “no later than April,” but the schedule slipped after an additional software problem was found and the FAA asked for further details.

In its announcement Sunday, American Airlines said it is “pleased with progress to date” on recertifying the plane and said it has been in frequent contact with the FAA, Department of Transportation and National Transportation Safety Board.

“American Airlines remains confident that impending software updates to the Boeing 737 Max, along with the new training elements Boeing is developing in coordination with our union partners, will lead to recertification of the aircraft soon,” the airline’s statement reads. “By extending the cancellations, our customers and team members can more reliably plan their upcoming travel on American.”

A Boeing statement said the company is working with airlines to ensure a smooth resumption of service.

The 737 Max was first introduced in May 2017. It was designed to be a newer, better version of Boeing’s 737, a long-trusted airplane model that is the bestselling jet in the company’s history.

Rather than go through the costly process of designing and recertifying an entirely new jet, Boeing wanted to make the Max operate as similarly as possible to earlier 737 models. To make the plane more fuel-efficient, Boeing included new engines that had to be placed differently on the jet’s wings. But doing so threatened to change the jet’s handling qualities, so Boeing added a new flight control system called the Maneuvering Characteristic Augmentation System, or MCAS, to adjust the direction of the plane’s nose in certain situations. But problems arose when the MCAS relied on faulty data from the plane’s external sensors, pushing the plane’s nose downward.

A misfiring MCAS system mixed with faulty sensors became a deadly combination in two crashes that together killed 346 people.