Ethiopian Airlines to resume Boeing 737 Max flights

Ethiopian Airlines will resume Boeing 737 Max flights from February 1, 2022, close on the heels of several countries lifting bans on the aircraft and returning to service in the U.S, Brazil, Canada, and Europe.

Earlier this week, Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam issued a statement saying: “Safety is our topmost priority at Ethiopian Airlines and it guides every decision we make and all actions we take. It is in line with this guiding principle that we are now returning the B737 MAX to service not only after the recertification by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), EASA of Europe, Transport Canada, CAAC, ECAA, and other regulatory bodies but also after the return to service by more than 34 airlines around the world.

“In line with our initially stated commitment to become among the last airlines to return the B737 MAX, we have taken enough time to monitor the design modification work and the more than 20 months of rigorous recertification process and we have ensured that our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, cabin crew are confident on the safety of the fleet. The airplane model has accumulated more than 275,000 commercial flights since the resumption of B737 MAX operation a year ago.”

The Indonesian government also recently lifted the ban on the Boeing 737 Max, three years after a deadly crash of one of the aircraft operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air led to the loss of all 189 people aboard.

The Boeing 737 Max, which was one of the best selling variants of Boeing, was grounded after it was involved in two fatal crashes within a span of six months including the Lion Air flight which took off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019, reportedly owing to the faulty design of the jet’s anti-stall system.

The Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed minutes after its take-off from Addis Ababa near the town of Bishoftu killing all 157 people on board. Post these tragedies, many governments around the world had grounded the Boeing 737 Max

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation said in a statement that “after going through the process of investigation, it was preparing to lift the operational ban on the aircraft.” The lifting of the ban would be ‘effective immediately’ and that it follows regulators’ check of changes made to the aircraft’s systems.