Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation regulator has become the latest to approve operations with the Boeing 737 Max, although none of the kingdom’s airlines yet operates the type. Flag carrier Saudia’s budget airline Flyadeal had been in line to acquire the 737 Max, through a provisional $5.9 billion agreement for 30 Max 8s unveiled at the end of 2018 – less than three months before the worldwide grounding of the type. Flyadeal, which had also intended to take options on another 20, subsequently abandoned the Max for an equivalent agreement to acquire the rival Airbus A320neo. Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation says the Max will be “allowed to return to service” within the country following its review. “Several foreign airlines operate flights to and from Saudi airports, and several flights cross [our] airspace with the same model,” says the regulator. GACA says it has co-ordinated with international aviation authorities over the modification of the aircraft, as well as training of pilot, to “ensure the highest level of safety”. Alongside the return-to-service approvals it will issue a type certification notification once the first example of the Max is introduced to the Saudi Arabian registry. Middle Eastern operators of the Max include Flydubai and Oman Air, while Qatar Airways has a small number in storage previously associated with its Air Italy operation. Kuwaiti lessor ALAFCO is also a customer.

Delta Air Lines intends to return all its pilots to “active-flying status” by October, part of the carrier’s effort to prepare for returning to 2019 capacity by summer 2023. “We’re preparing to potentially build back to 2019 levels of flying by summer 2023. With that projection in mind, we will… begin the process to return all remaining affected pilots to active-flying status by October,” Delta chief of operations John Laughter tells employees in a 26 February memo obtained by FlightGlobal. “This decision is a significant step to position Delta for the network recovery and supports projected customer demand,” the memo adds. “We’re seeing hopeful trends as the Covid vaccine rollout progresses, and we remain cautiously optimistic about travel demand and our recovery.” Pilots being shifted to active-flying status are those Delta had previously had placed in a “no-fly” category, the airline says. Pilots in that bucket remain Delta employees and receive guaranteed minimum pay but do not pilot aircraft, Delta adds. At the end of 2020, about 1,700 of Delta pilots were in the no-fly group. The airline previously said that 400 of those pilots would be shifted to active status in January. “Delta’s teams have to build in time to train pilots on the aircraft needed to fly the planned increased flight schedule. This process takes several months,” Delta says. “This move is to help Delta prepare for growth in future flying, as we look to anticipated customer demand in 2022 and 2023.” In December 2020, Delta’s pilots approved an agreement that protected them from furlough until April 2022. The airline ended 2020 with 12,940 pilots.

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says it supports the global ungrounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft but stops short of issuing a blanket approval for the aircraft type. CAA has worked closely with both the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia (CASA) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to "agree the return of service of the Boeing 737 Max into New Zealand", it says in a 26 February statement. The regulator's deputy chief executive aviation safety, Dean Winters says that the New Zealand, Australia and Singapore regulators agreed at a "recent meeting" that the airworthiness directives issued by the USA's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada, as well as Europe's aviation safety regulators provided a rigorous process and assurance that the aircraft can be operated safely. Winters states: "We have been very prudent in our assessment of all the work undertaken by Boeing and global regulators and we are satisfied that the required safety standards have been met." According to CAA, New Zealand does not have any 737 Max on its register and only Fiji Airways plans to operate the aircraft into New Zealand. Winters said in the same statement: "A timescale has not yet been decided by Fiji Airways as Covid-19 continues to restrict international flights. CAA staff are working closely with the airline to ensure that all safety measures in the airworthiness directives have been completed before the aircraft is permitted into New Zealand airspace." CAA says that a series of technical changes to the aircraft and additional crew training are required before it clears the 737 Max to fly. It adds that it has been in regular contact with the FAA during the period of the Max's grounding and has closely monitored 737 Max activity through its return to commercial service in the USA, Canada and South America. The regulator states: "The CAA will not issue a blanket approval for the Boeing 737 Max to fly into New Zealand but will work with any future operators on a case-by-case basis to clear flight operations into NZ." Australia's CASA on 26 February lifted the ban on the aircraft type. It says it accepts the FAA's return-to-service requirements as indication that the aircraft are safe, and further states: "Our airworthiness and engineering team has assessed there are no additional return to service requirements for operation in Australia." Australian carriers do not operate the 737 Max. CASA expects Singapore Airlines and Fiji Airways to fly the type into Australia though states there is currently no indication when the operators will resume such operations.