Comair has no plans to operate its Boeing 737 MAX as US rescinds grounding order

US aviation authorities have paved the way for Boeing's 737 MAX-8 to take to the air once again, nearly two years after the plane was grounded following two fatal crashes.

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) rescinded its grounding order on November 18 but said the plane would not return to service immediately.

Boeing has to make a series of design changes spelt out in a 115-page document, as well as implement new pilot-training programmes which the authority would have to approve.

Sticking to a promise that he would carry out the test flights himself, FAA administrator Steve Dickson took off for a two-hour test flight in an updated Boeing 737 Max in October.

 "I liked what I saw," he told reporters on landing. "It responded well."

Aviation regulators around the world are expected to follow the FAA's lead, including SA.

Comair, which operates Kulula and the British Airways regional franchise, had taken delivery of one MAX-8 and had another seven on order when the plane was grounded.

Comair, which is about to restart operations after emerging from business rescue, owns one 737 MAX but said it has no plans to operate the aircraft at this stage.

Grounding the aircraft cost Comair an estimated R200m - adding to the company's financial woes, which were worsened by SAA missing the December payment date in Comair's R1.1bn damages claim against the state-owned carrier. 

The company reported a headline earnings loss of R564m in its interim results for the six months ending December 31 2019.

In May, Comair - which had been under rapidly increasing financial pressure during lockdown - said it was entering voluntary business rescue.

The company began selling advance flight tickets on November 23. It plans to resume Kulula flights on December 1 followed by British Airways domestic services a week later.

“With reservations for the British Airways flights open, we’re now able to offer bookings on a considerably expanded schedule,” said Glenn Orsmond, representing the Comair Rescue Consortium.

Orsmond said Comair would operate 15 aircraft on Kulula and British Airways regional services, with the rest of the fleet due to enter service in the next few months.

The pandemic has seen airline passenger confidence in the doldrums and news that the 737 MAX is to return to service might be regarded with scepticism, Reuters reported.

The grounding order followed the crash of a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.

Five months earlier, a Lion Air 737 MAX plunged into the ocean in Indonesia, killing all 189 on board.

Investigators determined that both crashes were caused by faulty speed sensors which linked to a flawed flight control system that kept pushing the plane's nose down when it determined that airspeed was too low.

While Boeing allegedly knew the flight control system was flawed, a “culture of concealment” at the manufacturer meant the issue was hushed-up, NPR reported.

The grounding saw airlines cancel 737 MAX orders which, along with the effects of the pandemic, cost Boeing about $20bn (R305.62bn) and 30,000 jobs.

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