Boeing 737 Max could fly in Europe this summer after EU approval
The Boeing 737 Max could return to European skies by the summer once approval for the plane to fly again is granted in the EU next week.
It would mark a critical step in its return to service, after the 737 Max was grounded worldwide following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia caused by a faulty sensor, which repeatedly triggered a system that pushed the nose down. A total of 346 people died in the two accidents.
Patrick Ky, the executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), said on Tuesday it would publish an updated airworthiness directive next week, following in the footsteps of regulators in the US and Brazil. UK regulators must certify the plane separately.
The 737 Max will be able to return to service in the EU as soon as Boeing, the US’s aerospace champion, has updated software and rewired some components, and airlines have trained their pilots in the changes. Speaking at an event held by Germany’s aviation press, Ky said the version of the 737 Max bought by the Irish airline Ryanair will be certified “in the coming weeks”, meaning it will probably be ready for service by summer.
A Ryanair spokesperson said the airline expected to receive its first deliveries of the newly ordered planes in late March or early April, meaning it would be flying passengers in the 737 Max for the first time in April. However, the airline has said it will not tell passengers ahead of time what aircraft will be used.
The British Airways owner, International Airlines Group, announced its intention to buy 200 Max planes in 2019, but has yet to make a firm order.
Approval in the UK is likely to follow in the weeks after EASA’s official green light. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gained responsibility for aircraft certification after the UK left the single market on 31 December.
A CAA spokesman reiterated a previous statement that it was fully involved in EASA’s work on the 737 Max before Brexit. It will base its UK decision on this work as well as information from Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the statement said.
Airlines in Brazil and the US are already operating commercial flights using the plane after a protracted process of reexamining it in minute detail.
Multiple investigations following the crashes found serious flaws in the regulatory regime governing plane safety and within Boeing. A report by US politicians in September accused Boeing of endangering passenger safety by cutting costs, and said the FAA had let itself be influenced by the US manufacturer.
Ky acknowledged that EASA had been reliant on the FAA’s judgement of which systems and components were safe before the crashes, meaning it lacked some crucial information. He said the European regulator was now making its own assessment of which parts of the aircraft were safety-critical, rather than relying on the FAA’s judgement.
Some 20 EASA officials have worked on the 737 Max recertification for the last two years. Future certifications could take more time than before the crashes as regulators adapt to new processes, Ky said.
Referring to two variants of the 737 Max, a Boeing spokeswoman said: “We continue to work with EASA, other global regulators and our customers to safely return the 737-8 and 737-9 to service worldwide.”