Aviation Week reports that Ethiopian Airlines “has confirmed that its Boeing 737 MAXs will return to the skies in the coming days, nearly three years after the carrier’s fatal accident involving the type.”
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Tag: Boeing 737 MAX
Boeing 737 Max Cleared for Operations in Ethiopia, Indonesia
BBC News reported that Indonesia “has lifted a ban on the Boeing 737 Max, more than three years after the Lion Air disaster that saw the loss of all 189 people on board.”
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Boeing On Track to Clear 737 MAX Backlog by 2023
Aviation Week reported that The Boeing Company currently has around 330 737 MAX aircraft in its inventory and is on track to clear the backlog by 2023.
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China to Consider Test Flights On Boeing 737 MAX
Bloomberg reports that “Chinese aviation officials” are considering conducting a “validation flight” for the Boeing 737 MAX, “a step toward lifting the plane’s grounding in that nation after more than two years, according to people familiar with the matter.” The Boeing Company “is preparing to send a delegation of around 35 pilots and engineers to meet with regulators in late July after they undergo weeks of quarantine, one of the people said.” Following the test flight, Chinese regulators could “take many months” to finalize their inspections of the jet, “particularly if there is no break in the heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.”
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Boeing 737 MAX Cleared for Service in Saudi Arabia
Reuters reports that the Saudi civil aviation authority (GACA) “announced on Sunday that Boeing 737 Max planes will be allowed to return to service to and from the kingdom after meeting safety requirements.”
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Australia Lifts Grounding of Boeing 737 MAX
Reuters reports that Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority lifted its grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX on Friday, becoming the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to clear the jet to fly. Authority head Graeme Crawford said, “We…are confident that the aircraft are safe.” While no Australian airline flies the 737 MAX, Singapore Airlines and Fiji Airways had used the 737 MAX on flights to Australia prior to the jet’s grounding.
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United to Return Boeing 737 MAX to Service on Thursday
Bloomberg reports that United Airlines is scheduled to resume flights on the Boeing 737 MAX on Thursday, with “a total of two dozen flights” from Denver and Houston. United’s actions are part of the “gradual and so far uneventful return of The Boeing Company’s best-selling plane after a 20-month flying ban.” United is planning to operate 566 flights on the 737 MAX in February before increasing to 2,000 in March. Seven airlines have a total of 3,996 flights scheduled on the 737 MAX this month with another 8,700 planned for March.
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Boeing 737 MAX to Resume European Flights as SmartWings Plans Service
Bloomberg reports that the Boeing 737 MAX “will resume flights in Europe after a near two-year grounding following two fatal crashes, with Czech leisure airline SmartWings AS planning to bring back its seven-plane fleet.” SmartWings “will restart operations this month and aims to return all of the aircraft to service by the summer, it said in an email Tuesday.” The European Union Aviation Safety Agency cleared the aircraft to resume flights last month.
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United Airlines to Resume Flights With 737 MAX In February 2021
Live and Let’s Fly reported that United Airlines will make its first passenger flight with a Boeing 737 MAX since the global grounding in February of 2021. After “months of preparation,” United “will base its restarted 737 MAX service out of two hubs, Denver (DEN) and Houston (IAH).” In a message to employees, the airline said, “Safety has been and always will be our top priority, and it’s something we will never compromise for any reason. As we said when we announced the FAA certification of the MAX last month, United won’t fly the MAX until we have completed more than 1,000 hours of work on every aircraft, including FAA-mandated changes to the flight software, additional pilot training, multiple test flights and meticulous technical analysis.”
Full Story (Live and Let’s Fly)