United Airlines is not planning for the Boeing 737 Max’s return to service this summer, making it the first airline to announce it will operate without the aircraft during a second peak travel season. The FAA has not given a timeline for the aircraft’s re-certification, and Boeing said earlier this week it expects it will be “mid-2020” before the Max can realistically return to service. “We continue to assume there will be a safe return of the Max and we’re actually encouraged at what we hope is a more realistic timeline or target,” president Scott Kirby said Wednesday. “We will announce our own pushback of service to give us time to get the airplane up and running and time for classroom training and simulator training for our pilots.” Previously, United had removed the aircraft from its schedules through June 4. <br/>
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Air Canada said Wednesday it has removed Boeing's 737 MAX from its flight schedule until June 30, 2020, a day after the planemaker warned the grounded jet would not win regulatory approval until mid-year. The airline, which has 24 MAX aircraft in its fleet, said the decision was based on operational considerations after Boeing revealed that the MAX's return to service would be further delayed. The final decision on the aircraft's return would be based on the company's safety assessment, following a green light from the govt and approval by the FAA and Transport Canada, Air Canada said. The carrier had previously said it would not fly the MAX until Feb 14, 2020. <br/>
South Africa’s ruling political party insists that embattled South African Airways should be restructured and retained as the country’s flag-carrier. The African National Congress made the declaration following strategy meetings of its national executive council over Jan 17-20. It states that SAA should be “retained as a national airline” but that this will require “substantial restructuring” of the company. “Cabinet should take the operational decisions needed to achieve that aim,” it adds. The ANC states that it received details of the situation at SAA – as well as another state enterprise, electricity firm Eskom – along with “specific proposals” to improve the companies’ performance. It refers to the negative impact of historical agreements on SAA, including aircraft leases and evergreen contracts. <br/>