Ethiopian Airlines resumes MAX-operations

On 1 February, Ethiopian Airlines resumed MAX-operations with a special flight with airline management, ambassadors, Boeing-representatives and journalists on board. The MAX involved in the flight was ET-AVI (62448), which also made a first flight the day before to Nairobi. According to the CEO of the airline, the time is now right to restart flights with the MAX as the aircraft has been recertified by the major civil aviation authorities and has been flying safely again with 36 airlines around the world.

The resumption is close to three year after the airline's fatal crash of ET-AVJ (62450), which crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on 10 March 2019, while en-route to Nairobi. In the crash, all 157 people on board were killed. As known, it was also the second crash of a MAX, triggering the world wide grounding of the B737MAX.

Currently, Ethiopian has four B737-8s in the fleet and open orders for 26 more.

Photo by Ethiopian Airlines.