Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri says international air travel will be opened up systematically without endangering people
NEW DELHI : SpiceJet Ltd hopes that it will be able to return its grounded Boeing 737Max aircraft fleet to operation by October-November later this year as regulators around the world are set to carry out test flights on the aircraft in the coming days.
"They (Boeing 737Max aircraft) are again occupying some space at our airports right now. We hope they can be back soon. But you know my expectation is it is still a few months away. They are telling us August. But I would think it is more like October-November," the airline's chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said during a webinar, which was attended by several big wigs of the aviation industry.
SpiceJet ordered as many as 205 of these planes in 2017, of which 13 have been delivered. The planes were, however, grounded around the world in March 2019 after two fatal crashes. Efforts to re-certify the plane have been marked by repeated delays.
According to a report by news agency Bloomberg, The European Union Aviation Safety Agency will perform its flight tests on the grounded Boeing jet after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducts its own, in the coming days. However, the return of Boeing Co.’s 737Max is at risk of additional delays because of coronavirus travel restrictions that have hindered planning for test flights by regulators.
Meanwhile, the Indian government will severely ramp up flights under Vande Bharat Mission (VBM), to bring back home more stranded Indians from abroad, in the coming days, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the webinar.
"We have gone to about 52 countries to places Air India has never flown before (for carrying out repatriation flights under VBM)," Puri said.
The aviation minister added that international air travel will be opened up systematically without endangering people.
However, he said that he didn't want to put a timeline on the resumption of international travel.
"When domestic aviation reaches 50%-55% capacity and states are in position to take in more passengers, we will look at international flights," he said adding that resumption of international air travel will depend on several factors including bilaterals and foreign countries opening up for international passengers.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet's Ajay Singh said that all Indian carriers would eventually have to look at operating wide body aircraft if they want to fly directly to farway international destinations as traveling through hubs may not be an attractive proposition in a pandemic-scarred world.
"However, this has to be supported by government policies. We must decide that we must take passengers from India to all over the world," Singh said, adding that the economy will not open up until air travel is fully restored.
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