Ryanair hopes Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX jet returns to service next month

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair announced that Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX aircraft may return to service in the United States as soon as next month. That would allow Ryanair to start receiving 737 MAX jets rebranded as 737-8 in early 2021.

The announcement comes as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a draft report on Tuesday on revised training procedures for the 737 MAX.

The first of those (orders) we would hope to arrive in very early 2021,” chief executive of Ryanair’s main airlines business Eddie Wilson told Ireland’s Newstalk radio station. “The FAA finished their test flights last week and it looks like it’s going to go back into service in the US in the next month or so. EASA, the European agency, are working very closely,” he added.

The US plane maker’s once best-selling passenger plane, the 737 MAX, now apparently being rebranded as the 737-8, has been grounded for over a year, after two fatal crashes less than six months apart in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. In both cases, new flight control software caused the aircraft to unexpectedly nosedive shortly after takeoff.

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