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American Airlines Takes First Step in Bringing Back the 737 MAX

An undelivered American Airlines 737 MAX sits at Renton Airport. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

American Airlines was already set on being the first U.S. airline to bring the Boeing 737 MAX back into service, planning on bringing back the aircraft over the busy winter holiday travel season with a flight between New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Miami International Airport on Dec. 29.

But as airlines across the world have come to realize, setting the MAX back into motion will come with a set of public image challenges, the likes of which the industry hasn’t faced in decades. As a result, even after waiting nearly two years for Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to get the MAX flying again, customer airlines now have to contend with a group of flyers that may not yet feel comfortable stepping aboard an aircraft that has spent those 24 months in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

American — just like several other airlines both in the U.S. and abroad — will allow customers who don’t want to fly on the MAX to rework their schedule to avoid the aircraft, a task that will prove easier over the first couple of months of operation before the type begins to command a larger portion of airlines’ schedules. That, of course, is proving to be less of a 737 MAX-specific perk than originally planned, as airlines have almost universally loosened their refund and cancelation policies in order to drum up new bookings and improve cash flow in recent months.

American Airlines will also be hosting customer tours of the MAX in the coming weeks to show the traveling public around the aircraft and to give pilots and other operators the opportunity to share a little more about the MAX and the changes made to ensure the safety of passengers.

An American 737 MAX 8 jet performing a test flight. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

Targeting Employees

According to View From the Wing, American Airlines announced in an internal memo it would operate five flights for employees to fly aboard the Boeing 737 MAX before it begins operating on behalf of the carrier in December. The flights will be in the “flight to nowhere” model that other airlines have used to drum up extra revenue, taking off and landing at the same airport.

From Dec. 3-17, American will operate one flight at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and two flights each at Miami International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. The flights will be open to anyone employed by American Airlines and its subsidiaries.

While the flights will only be targeted at a small subset of the airline’s population, they will represent some of the first opportunities American’s pilots will have to operate the aircraft itself — rather than flying in simulators — prior to putting the aircraft back on regularly scheduled commercial service.

Even though the airline’s true motives for operating the flights are unpublished, they could be serving a number of purposes, from serving as positive publicity for American and the MAX to serving as a chance for crew to get acclimated to the aircraft again, which is a natural part of the process of the introduction of any new aircraft into an airline’s fleet. But this time around, it’s different. This is take two, and American, Boeing and the world will be watching to see that these otherwise meaningless flights go off without a hitch.

Parker Davis

Author

  • Parker Davis

    Parker joined AirlineGeeks as a writer and photographer in 2016, combining his longtime love for aviation with a newfound passion for journalism. Since then, he’s worked as a Senior Writer before becoming Editor-in-Chief of the site in 2020. Originally from Dallas and an American frequent flyer, he left behind the city’s rich aviation history to attend college in North Carolina, where he’s studying economics.

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