BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s SpiceJet Ltd said on Thursday it has agreed to a settlement with Boeing Co’s MAX aircraft lessor Avolon, paving the way for the 737 MAX jets to return to service.
The airline said https://bit.ly/3DkjiYD it expects to start operations of MAX aircraft around the end of September, subject to regulatory approvals.
India’s air safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SpiceJet did not provide any further details on the settlement.
“As India emerges from COVID-19 and air traffic picks up again, the MAX aircraft will play a major role in our future expansion,” Ajay Singh, SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director said.
About 30 airlines and 175 countries have allowed the 737 MAX to return to service following a nearly two-year safety ban.
The ban followed two crashes five months apart which killed 346 people, plunging Boeing into a financial crisis since compounded by the pandemic.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
