Southwest Airlines Shares $125M From Boeing Max Jet Settlement With Its Employees
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The grounding of 737 Max jets has taken a huge toll on Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. Now, after reaching an agreement with Boeing for some of their financial damages, the Dallas-based airline announced that they'll share about $125 million from the settlement with its employees.
Southwest has been among the hardest hit by the grounding of Boeing's Max 737 airplanes in March after a pair of deadly crashes. Without the planes, Southwest has said that it will cancel about 175 flights each weekday.
Earlier this month, the airline pushed back the return date for the troubled aircraft. Erring on the side of caution Southwest has taken Max jets off of its schedule until March of 2020, a month longer than previously planned. The airline's fleet consists entirely of Boeing 737s, most of them earlier versions of the plane.
The company had 34 Max jets when they were grounded and had expected more to be delivered this year.
The airline said Thursday that the money given to employees will be funded as part of its annual 2019 profit sharing distribution next year. Southwest workers will also find out next year more details on the percentage of money they will receive.
The settlement details with Boeing are confidential.
Southwest Airlines Co. is in ongoing talks with Boeing Co. about compensation for damages related to the Max groundings.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)