Australia’s aviation regulator to lift a near two-year ban on flights.
Australia’s aviation regulator said on Friday it would lift a near two-year ban on flights to and from the country that use the Boeing Co 737 MAX planes, among the first in the Asia-Pacific region to do so.
“We … are confident that the aircraft are safe,” Graeme Crawford, the acting chief of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, said in a statement.
The regulator has accepted the comprehensive return-to-service requirements set by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as state of design for the 737 MAX, he added.
No Australian airlines operate the 737 MAX, but Fiji Airways and Singapore Airlines operated them on flights to Australia before the craft were grounded in March 2019 after two deadly crashes.
Virgin Australia has 25 of the planes on order but they are not due for delivery until mid-2023.
