flydubai prepares for Boeing 737 MAX to rejoin its fleet

  • Date: 19-Feb-2021
  • Source: Arab News
  • Sector:Transport
  • Country:UAE
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flydubai prepares for Boeing 737 MAX to rejoin its fleet

DUBAI: United Arab Emirates-based carrier flydubai is preparing for the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to rejoin its fleet, the Dubai government's media office said on Twitter on Thursday. The United Arab Emirates, a key international travel hub, announced on Wednesday it has lifted its ban on Boeing's 737 Max, allowing the plane to return to its skies after being grounded for nearly two years following a pair of deadly crashes. Saif Al-Suwaidi, director general of the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority, said the country gave clearance to the planes "as a result of intensive efforts by the authority's technical committees," according to the state-run WAM news agency. The government ensured all safety conditions had been met after the US Federal Aviation Administration ended the grounding last fall, Al-Suwaidi added, without specifying when flights would resume. It could take some time for airlines to ensure their pilots receive necessary training to fly the planes and to carry out maintenance and all other changes. The planes were grounded worldwide in March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, which killed a total of 346 people.