Alaska Cancels 737 Max 9 Flights Through Saturday as It Awaits FAA Approval for Inspections

Alaska Airlines said it is canceling all flights operated on the Boeing 737 Max 9 through January 13 as it awaits approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct inspections on the aircraft. 

The carrier said the cancellations would amount to around 110 to 150 flights a day. Initially, Alaska expected the disruptions to last until the middle of this week.

“We hope this action provides guests with a little more certainty, and we are working around the clock to reaccommodate impacted guests on other flights,” Alaska said in a statement on Wednesday. 

In a memo sent to pilots on Wednesday, United said it expected to see “meaningful cancellations” through at least Thursday.

Alaska and United are the only two U.S. carriers that fly the 737-9, which the FAA has temporarily grounded after a door plug on the fuselage of an Alaska jet suddenly blew off mid-air on January 5. 

The grounding has led Alaska and United to cancel hundreds of flights daily since the incident. 

Aeromexico and Copa Airlines have also grounded their 737-9 fleets since the FAA directive also affects international carriers that operate the aircraft on U.S. routes. 

The NTSB is currently investigating the Alaska incident. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the agency was investigating whether bolts meant to keep the door plug in place were ever installed or if they went missing as a result of the decompression. 

Those latest findings come as Alaska and United reported finding some loose hardware in their initial inspections of the 737-9. The FAA paused 737-9 inspections on Tuesday, saying that Boeing is revising its instructions for inspection. 

The FAA also said the 737-9 will remain grounded until the agency finds the plane is safe to operate. 

The fallout from Alaska’s 737-9 incident has been a major blow to Boeing, which has experienced numerous issues with its 737 Max fleet. The FAA grounded the 737-8 for nearly 20 months after it was involved in fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. 

Spirit Aerosystems, a major Boeing supplier that designed the door plug, has also received scrutiny for the incident. The aircraft supplier announced on Wednesday that it would assist the NTSB investigation. 

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said during a company-wide meeting on Tuesday that the company needed to acknowledge the issues with the 737-9 as “our mistake” and that such an event “can never happen again.”

“We’re going to approach this number one acknowledging our mistake,” Calhoun said during the meeting. “We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way.”