Ethiopian Airlines resumes 737 MAX operations

Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa) resumed B737-8 operations on February 1, 2022, nearly three years after the crash of an Ethiopian MAX prompted the type’s global grounding.

The airline deployed ET-AVI (msn 62448) on a four-hour special flight departing from and arriving back at Addis Ababa airport. Despite the non-scheduled nature of the flight, it carried passengers, including airline management, members of the diplomatic corps, government officials, and journalists. Ethiopian Airlines sought to use the flight to demonstrate the type’s safety in this way.

“We are now returning the B737 MAX to service not only after its recertification by the FAA, EASA of Europe, Transport Canada, CAAC, ECAA, and other regulatory bodies but also after the fleet type’s return to service by 36 airlines around the world. In line with our initially stated commitment to become among the last airlines to return the B737 MAX, we have taken enough time to monitor the design modification work and the more than 20 months of rigorous recertification process,” Chief Executive Tewolde GebreMariam said.

The carrier has four B737-8s in its fleet following the loss of ET-AVJ (msn 62450) on March 10, 2019, near Addis Ababa airport. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows it has a further twenty-five MAX on order and said it would take “some” of them in 2022.

Ethiopian Airlines is not the last airline in the world to resume B737 MAX operations as authorities in China have yet to reauthorise the type. Nonetheless, it has kept the type grounded much longer than most airlines in the United States and Europe, which started reactivating them in late 2020 and early 2021.

According to the ch-aviation schedules, Ethiopian Airlines launched scheduled B737 MAX operations on February 2, deploying it to Khartoum. Starting on February 4, it will also use the type to connect Addis Ababa with Athens Int’l, Enugu, and Moscow Domodedovo (via Athens).