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Avianca Brasil canceled more than 1,045 domestic flights this week because it has to return 18 aircraft to leasing agencies. Brazil's National Aviation Agency said the planes needed to be returned Monday to avoid affecting Holy Week holiday passengers. Avianca Brasil declined to say how many planes it has left. But local media reports that the airline has just 7 planes still in its fleet. Avianca Brasil filed for bankruptcy in December after failing to pay leases on its aircraft. The airline, formerly known as Ocean Air, has licensed the name Avianca since 2010 from Avianca Holdings. They are separate companies with the same owners: brothers German and Jose Efromovich. The latter is being investigated for allegedly failing to pay airport fees in Salvador airport in northeastern Brazil. <br/>

United Airlines planned to operate up to 110 daily flights with the Boeing 737 Max by the end of year, more than double the number it flew when the type was grounded in March. The carrier, which operated 14 737 Max 9s when the type was suspended, has warned of a growing impact from the grounding that, to date, it has mitigated by swapping in spare aircraft and postponing non-essential maintenance on others to cover its 50 daily Max flights at the time. But with the grounding expected to stretch into the summer, United has removed the 737-9 from schedules through July and warned of a greater impact to passengers to come. "With 14 aircraft that was something that we could manage for a month or two," said COO Greg Hart. "But beyond that, it gets really tough to manage." <br/>