UAE’s Flydubai to Have All 14 737 MAX Jets by June

United Arab Emirates’ Flydubai expects to have all of its 14 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft back in service by the first week of June.

In an online press briefing held last Tuesday, Head of Maintenance, Andrew Glover revealed that five of these jets have been cleared to return to service after a two-year grounding and that the airline has every confidence in this aircraft.

The 737 was grounded in March 2019 following the two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killing a total of 346 people onboard.

The UAE aviation regulator lifted the ban in February after the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set out the return to service requirements.

Flydubai said 12 countries on its network including India and Russia had not approved the jet and it would only operate flight to countries that had lifted the ban.

Moreover, the airline reveals that 233 pilots had completed the additional training and were ready to resume 737 MAX flights. Its remaining 522 pilots are expected to receive the additional training by the end of the year

Flydubai, which has been flying older variants of the 737 planes since starting operations in 2009, has ordered a total of 251 737 MAX jets, including the 14 already delivered.