Southwest Airlines confirmed last week that it won’t fly the grounded Boeing 737 Max until next year. The airline also announced that it’s pulling out of Newark Liberty International Airport this November. The new comes just a few days after a class action was filed against the airline for covering up the 737 Max issues, in collusion with Boeing.
Southwest has dropped the troubles aircraft from its schedules until January 5th. That means that the airline and passengers will face more canceled flights and potentially higher fares during the busy end-of-year holiday travel period. Previously flights were canceled through August 5th. American Airlines will keep the planes out of service until at least August 19th.
Regulators worldwide grounded the Boeing 737 Max in mid-March after two fatal crashes and have not said when they will allow the jets to fly again. Southwest has more of these planes than any other U.S. airline, 34 of its fleet of 750.
Southwest at Newark Airport
Starting November 3rd, Southwest will no longer operate out of Newark, NJ. It will consolidate its New York operations out of LaGuardia Airport in Queens. Southwest said its Newark operations haven’t been profitable enough and that it is registering strong demand out of LaGuardia as per CNBC. Service out of Newark started back in 2011.