India will adopt a conservative approach in removing the ban on Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and will only let these planes fly in its airspace once most global players start operating them again.
"We will be conservative, we will wait and watch with respect to 737 MAX matter. Let's see how it goes. It (Service resumption) should start first in the US and then other major players. We have a small number of such planes with us, out of 400, we only have 12," Arun Kumar, Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) told reporters today.
The project, being called as Return to service of MAX, started when Boeing held the first meeting with all regulators in May after the worldwide grounding of the aircraft.
While at that time, there was no clarity about the steps needed to be taken, the regulator feels that since then, Boeing has "covered some distance."
Boeing has also claimed that it has conducted 800 hours of test flying, not with Indian operators but other global airlines, with the upgrade, a senior government official said.
“Boeing has communicated that it will approach FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) for certification of the upgrade around October," Kumar said.
Several senior government officials added that India is in no hurry to remove the ban on these aircraft and as of now, there is still a long way to go before confidence is reinstated in the aircraft.
In July, the US aviation regulator FAA had found a new potential risk in Boeing's MAX family of aircraft and had asked the company to mitigate it.
Boeing's fastest-selling model, the MAX aircraft, was grounded worldwide in March following safety concerns after a second fatal crash involving this aircraft make. While the first tragic crash was a Lion Air flight in late October 2018, the second one was that of Ethiopian Airlines in March this year.
The manufacturer has since been working on an upgrade for the flight control system of the aircraft called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.
In India, SpiceJet is a customer of MAX planes. Its fleet has 12 MAX aircraft, all of which are grounded. Its total order-book for MAX aircraft stands at 155 firm orders and option to buy 50 more.
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