The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has completed three days of flight tests on the Boeing 737 Max ahead of a possible recertification in the coming weeks. The flights were an important milestone in the process to bring the troubled aircraft back into service and end its almost 16-month grounding following two fatal accidents. “During three days of testing this week, FAA pilots and engineers evaluated Boeing’s proposed changes in connection with the automated flight control system on the aircraft,” the FAA said on 1 July. “While completion of the flights is an important milestone, a number of key tasks remain, including evaluating the data gathered during these flights.” “The agency is following a deliberate process and will take the time it needs to thoroughly review Boeing’s work. We will lift the grounding order only after FAA safety experts are satisfied that the aircraft meets certification standards,” the regulatory body says. Certification flights are among the final steps prior to the FAA issuing an airworthiness directive (AD) lifting the grounding. The AD will specify measures operators must take before returning the jets to revenue service. Boeing has said it expects the AD will come in time to permit it to resume 737 Max deliveries in the third quarter of the year. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft with the tail number N7201S completed about 10 hours of flight time over Washington state and neighbouring Idaho on 29 and 30 June, and 1 July. The FAA must still review and approve Boeing’s final design documentation and the regulator’s Flight Standardization Board (FSB) as well as the Joint Operations Evaluation Board (JOEB) - which includes partners from other non-US jurisdictions - will evaluate pilot training requirements. The type was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after two separate accidents killed 346 passengers and crew. The aircraft’s new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was at fault in both crashes. Earlier in the day another government watchdog issued a scathing report that blasted Boeing for misleading regulators and purposefully holding back information about MCAS during the aircraft’s certification process. The FAA was kept in the dark about potential dangers of the flawed system, and therefore it was not able to adequately test or otherwise address it.

Source: Cirium

Thailand will ease a ban on international passenger flights into the country on 1 July, nearly three months after first imposing it on 4 April. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said in a 29 June notice that it would permit international passenger flights to operate into Thailand carrying 11 permitted categories of passenger. These include: returning Thai nationals; foreign nationals with a valid Thai work permit, or studying in the country; and any passenger covered by a "special arrangement" with a foreign country. However, the authority did not specify if transit passengers were allowed to travel through Thai airports, or when scheduled international passenger flights could fully resume. The notice further states that Thailand will continue to allow state or military aircraft, emergency landings, aircraft making technical stops, cargo and repatriation flights, and humanitarian, medical and relief missions into the country. The move to ease the ban on international passenger flights came as Thailand extended its national state of emergency by an additional month to 31 July. Singapore newspaper The Straits Times has reported that businesspeople and technical experts from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea will be allowed to enter Thailand under special arrangements, but will be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. Since May, Thai carriers such as Bangkok Airways, Thai AirAsia, and Thai Lion Air have resumed domestic flights. However, Thai Airways and Thai AirAsia X have not said as to when flights will resume. NokScoot, meanwhile, is set to cease operations. It announced on 26 June that its board had decided to liquidate the company, and that shareholders would “deliberate the same resolution” at a general meeting in "about 14 days". All seven Boeing 777-200ERs the long-haul airline used to operate will be returned to Singapore Airlines. Thailand, with a population of about 66 million, has nearly 3,200 confirmed coronavirus cases and 58 deaths as of 30 June, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Cirium

Grupo Aeromexico, the parent company of Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA after the coronavirus pandemic decimated its business. It is the third Latin American carrier after Colombia’s Avianca and Chile’s LATAM Airlines to do so as the fallout of the global crisis creates liquidity problems for the region’s airlines. The move comes just 11 days after Aeromexico said publicly that it had no plans to file for bankruptcy, but that it was “evaluating alternatives to move towards a better financial position”. Reversing its earlier course, the company says it hopes to utilise the process to acquire new financing, increase its liquidity reserves and create ”a sustainable platform to succeed in an uncertain global economy”. “Our industry faces unprecedented challenges due to significant declines in demand for air transportation,” says Aeromexico chief executive Andrés Conesa on 30 June. “We are committed to taking the necessary measures so that we can operate effectively in this new landscape and be well prepared for a successful future when the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us.” The company will continue operations as normal, and all tickets will remain valid, the airline says. Latin American carriers are struggling as the region’s governments have been much slower to respond with financial support for the air transport industry than in other parts of the world, such as North America and Europe. Billion-dollar aid packages in those regions have helped airlines stay afloat, at least temporarily, and reorganise their operations after passenger demand dropped off sharply when the coronavirus exploded into a global pandemic earlier this year. LATAM and Avianca both filed for bankruptcy protection in May in order to shield their businesses from creditors. Like Aeromexico, the airlines said they wanted to make sure they are able to restart operations smoothly when passenger demand returns and when travel restrictions are lifted. Air traffic fell by about 96% in Latin America and the Caribbean as the coronavirus pandemic reached its peak in April, and has yet to make any significant steps toward recovery. While most countries begin to lift restrictions in the coming weeks, Colombia and Argentina expect to have lockdowns in place through the end of August.

Source: Cirium