United Airlines Suspends Boeing MAX Flights Until March 2020

United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL) has once again extended the grounding period of its Boeing 737 MAX jets as uncertainty looms over the aircraft’s return to service. The carrier, which has 14 such jets in its fleet, has now suspended all flights on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft through Mar 4, 2020. It had previously expected the aircraft to remain grounded until Jan 6.

The airline had earlier stated that the ongoing groundings are likely to induce 93 flight cancellations per day in November and 75 each in December. Absence of the jets during the busy Christmas season is expected to dent United Airlines' top line in the current year.

Earlier this month, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) extended the suspension period of the MAX aircraft through early March 2020. As the groundings began in March 2019, following two successive deadly air crashes involving this aircraft model, these carriers including United Airlines had to extend the grounding period of the controversial aircraft a number of times.

Amid such large-scale ambiguity revolving around the aircraft’s return to service, last week, Boeing (NYSE:BA) said the Federal Aviation Administration could approve the software fixes on the plane as early as December and the agency might as well approve the fixes on the new pilot training program in January itself.

Zacks Rank

United Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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