American Airlines goes full throttle to restore Boeing MAX fleet
American Airlines’ maintenance team is scrambling to complete safety changes to its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX jets ahead of a phased return to service, while deliveries of new jets are set to begin as early as this week.
American’s maintenance base, the largest in the world, has housed its 24 MAX planes during a 20-month safety ban that followed the second of two fatal crashes for the aircraft in March 2019, forcing some 400 MAX jets in service to be grounded.
It has handled some unexpected tasks while caring for the idled jets, including evicting wildlife and custom-making tarps.
“Birds like to nest in things. Combating that has been rather interesting,” said Erik Olund, managing director of base maintenance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under the wing of a 737 MAX.
