India Set To Allow Boeing 737 Max To Resume Flights Operations: Report

Boeing 737 Max was grounded across the world over two years ago after two crashes within a span of 5 months in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.

New Delhi: India could soon allow Boeing Co's 737 Max jets to resume flights in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, the report said India has been satisfied with the Boeing plane's performance since it was un-grounded in some countries, and that the company has met India's own requirements too, which included setting up a Max simulator in the country.

Boeing 737 Max was grounded across the world over two years ago after two crashes within a span of five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.

The US, Europe and several other countries have since lifted the ban. 

In April, India started allowing Max jets registered in other nations to enter the Indian airspace if it was permitted by the registering authority of that particular country.

A Boeing representative told Bloomberg that more than 170 global regulators, out of 195, have opened their airspace to 737 Max. Quoting Rajeev Jain, a spokesman for Union Minister of Civil Aviation, the report said a decision on un-grounding the model is awaited.

Boeing In Talks With Akasa

Boeing is said to be in an advanced stage of discussions with Akasa, a new Indian airline backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, to sell 737 Max jets, the news agency reported earlier.

As of now, SpiceJet Ltd is the only Indian carrier that has 737 Max jets on order. The company is currently in discussions with the US planemaker on a compensation package, the report said Thursday.

The worldwide grounding of the plane model after the two crashes came as a big blow to Boeing, which has thousands of 737 Max orders on its books across the globe. 

While one crash took place in October 2018 in Indonesia, the second occurred in March 2019 in Ethiopia. 

As many as 189 people died after Lion Air flight 610 dove into the Java Sea just 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta in Indonesia on October 29, 2018. That aircraft was said to be only three months old, according to reports. 

The other incident left 149 passengers and eight crew members dead, when Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 departing for Nairobi in Kenya on March 10, 2019, crashed just six minutes after it left the runway at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. That aircraft was also new, only four months old, reports said.