Air Canada Cancels Some of Its Boeing 737 MAX 8 Flights

Air Canada has cancelled some flights between Canada’s east coast and London in response to a UK ban on Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes from its airspace.

The airline cancelled four flights scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on MAX 8 planes.

The same model of plane crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, including 32 Kenyans and 18 Canadians. In October, another MAX 8 crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people. In both cases, experienced pilots were flying the planes.

Boeing has so far refused to ground its planes. “Safety is Boeing’s number one priority and we have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX,” the company said Tuesday. Boeing said it has been working on a software update for the 737 MAX for the past several months, and will deploy the new software across the 737 MAX fleet in the coming weeks.

Air Canada has 24 MAX 8 planes in its fleet.

“Due to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority banning all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operations in the UK Air Canada will be cancelling its Halifax to London and St. John’s to London flights today and tomorrow,” a spokesperson told VICE.

“We are working to rebook impacted customers as soon as possible through our Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa hubs.”

Customers who had their flights cancelled can contact the airline to change their flights free of charge, Air Canada said.

WestJet told VICE that its flights from Canada’s east coast to Europe are seasonal, so it didn’t have to cancel any flights. The airline has 13 MAX 8 planes in its fleet. WestJet told VICE it “remains confident” in the safety of its fleet.

France, Germany and Ireland followed the UK in banning MAX 8s from their airspace, as did Australia. China grounded its fleet of MAX 8s on Monday.

Air Canada said it was “confident in the safety of our operations and fleet,” which are approved by government regulators.

“Air Canada follows and implements recommendations and advisories from manufacturers and governmental safety regulators. This includes previous 737 MAX bulletins reinforcing existing procedures which all Air Canada crew were already trained on.”

While other countries banned the model of plane altogether, Canada has yet to follow suit.

Transport minister Marc Garneau met with an expert panel Tuesday to discuss the issue, CP reported.

Garneau said “all options are on the table,” including grounding the planes, but warned against jumping to conclusions. On Monday, Garneau said Canada is consulting with the US Federal Aviation Authority to figure out next steps.

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