American Airlines Announces Boeing 737 Max Model Will Resume Commercial Service In January

American Airlines announced Wednesday that it will likely resume flying Boeing 737 Max airplanes starting in January. The 737 Max has been grounded in March, after two plane crashes involving the aircraft killed a total of 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

American Airlines said on its website that "impending software updates to the Boeing 737 Max will lead to recertification of the aircraft later this year and resumption of commercial service in January 2020." The airline added that it would slowly phase in the Max for commercial service and that "it will increase flying through the month and into February."

The two 737 Max crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia both involved a sensor issue, which would put the aircraft in an irreversible dive while flying. U.S. and EU regulators are reportedly at odds over the plane's reconfigured flight control system.

Boeing has faced a major loss in revenue following the crashes. The company reported a loss of $2.9 billion in the second quarter of 2019, the largest in its history.

Boeing is also struggling to keep up with its European competitor Airbus in the wake of the tragedies. Boeing only delivered 302 planes in the first nine months of 2019, compared to Airbus' 571.

Pilots from Southwest Airlines earlier this week have filed a lawsuit to sue Boeing for $115 million in lost compensation which they say was a result of the grounding of the 737 Max. The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association also said that Boeing "deliberately" misled the pilots about the safety of the model.