Boeing 787 MAX 9 Update: Cancellations Continue as Alaska and United Await Word from FAA

Cancellations continue to pile up for Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the two North American carriers with the largest 737-9 MAX fleets, in the wake of the Alaska Airlines 1282 incident last Friday.

Alaska is canceling all flights on its 737-9 MAX aircraft through Saturday, Jan. 13 as it continues to wait for documentation from Boeing and the FAA to begin inspections. That will see somewhere between 110 and 150 flights per day, about 20% of its schedule, canceled. Alaska continues to employ a flexible travel policy that will allow guests to cancel or change flights if they are impacted by the cancellations.

United hasn’t made that kind of announcement, but it’s also canceling flights every day—the airline canceled close to 170 flights on Wednesday and said it expects another round of significant cancellations on Thursday.

United, like Alaska, has extended its fee waiver—United will allow guests to reschedule without change fees and fare differences for flights through Jan. 15. Ticketholders can opt for a new flight through Jan. 23 without paying additional fees. If the new trip is after Jan. 23 or is to a different destination, United will still waive any change fees but a fare difference may apply.

Timeline for a return to service
According to Alaska, the jets won’t be back in service until Boeing issues a Multi-Operator Message (MOM), which provides inspection details, and then the FAA publishes an Alternate Methods of Compliance (AMOC), which includes “details for approval of operators’ inspection processes to ensure compliance with their Airworthiness Directive.”

Only then can Alaska begin inspections, which will take at least a few more days, as Alaska said on the day after the Flight 1282 emergency landing. Even then, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg declined to say when the FAA would allow the planes to resume, saying that it would do so only when it deems them safe.

“Until it is ready, it is not ready. Nobody can or should be rushed in that process,” Buttigieg told reports during a press conference on Wednesday.

The FAA echoed that in a statement this week.

“The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 Max to service,” it said.

Boeing CEO Apologizes
In a statement to employees this week, published on the Boeing website, Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun thanked the Alaska Airlines team that flew Flight 1282 for their ability to land the plane safely without major injuries.

“In a very scary circumstance, they train their lives to do that. But you don’t know until you know, I hope most never know,” he said. “But this crew, they stood the test and they delivered the airplane back home to us.”

He then said that Boeing would approach the investigation first by “acknowledging our mistake.”

“We are going to approach this with 100% transparency every step of the way. We’re going to work with the NTSB which is investigating the accident itself to find out what the root cause is.”

Calhoun, who has been at the helm of Boeing since Jan. 2020, post the 737 MAX crashes in 2018, also acknowledged that Boeing is at a “very anxious moment” with travelers who will now be questioning whether or not they feel comfortable flying in the 737 MAX 9 jets.

“We need to know that we are starting at a very anxious with our customers. We simply have to deal with that reality. So it’s going to be a lot about transparency.”