Ryanair aims to fly Boeing 737 Max from "early next year"

Europe’s biggest budget airline will be flying the Boeing 737 Max from “probably early next year”. Eddie Wilson, CE of the main operating division, Ryanair DAC, made the prediction as American Airlines revealed plans to start flying the plane between New York and Miami. “It gives us lower operating costs. In the environment we’re in now, the Max will not only be welcomed by Ryanair, it’ll be welcomed by our crews as well.” The 737 Max is more fuel efficient and less environmentally harmful than earlier models of the aircraft. Ryanair is by far the biggest European customer for the Max. It has firm orders for 135 of a special version of the jet, with 197 seats – eight more than the standard configuration. The carrier has a further 75 on option. It was due to start flying the Max to and from its main base, London Stansted, in May 2019. But the plane has been grounded worldwide since March 2019, days after the loss of 157 passengers and crew aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. It followed the crash in October 2018 of Lion Air flight 610 on a domestic flight. All 189 passengers and crew died. Wilson said: “I think it’s going to come back into service in the next number of weeks in the US. Easa has been working closely with the FAA. It’s trying to get two regulatory authorities to jump together. The FAA are going to go first, and Easa closely behind that.”<br/>