ReutersSouthwest Airlines Co. on Wednesday was the first major U.S. airline to formally cut its financial outlook for the year after being forced to pull its new fleet of 34 Boeing 737 MAX planes out of service. Southwest said of its expected cancellations, about 3,800 would be weather-related and about 2,800 due to unscheduled maintenance disruptions and the grounding of the 737 MAX 8. Its larger rival, American Airlines, has so far said only that it was canceling around 90 flights per day as a result of the grounding of its own 24 Boeing 737 MAX planes. “The impacts associated with the MAX are contained to Southwest, American and United, though are most acute for Southwest per today’s update,” Morgan Stanley analyst Rajeev Lalwani said. Airlines shares, including those of Southwest, were up in late afternoon trading on optimism that the worst is over for the 737 MAX now that Boeing has put forward a plan for fixing the aircraft.

Source: Ethiopian News March 28, 2019 09:56 UTC