Indo Canadian News News That Matters
On Wednesday (Jan 7), Canadian low cost carrier WestJet has disclosed that it intended to bring the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft back into the passenger service in next two weeks. The decision of the carrier will depend on the Transport Canada and Canadian Aviation Agency, which will approve the return to passenger service as scheduled.
After 20 months of grounding, countries/regions all over the world are gradually re-certifying the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The first batch of operators has already put the aircraft back into service, including American Airlines in the United States.
WestJet on Wednesday said that it is planning to put the Boeing 737 MAX back into service on January 21, 2021. However, there are still some issues for the airline to deal with before this can be happened. So far, the airline will not be responsible for the greatest obstacle to be overcome.
The carrier noted that Transport Canada has not yet granted the 737 MAX clearances for the carriage of passengers in Canadian air space. Instead, the carrier insisted that it is providing advance warning of its intention to put the aircraft into services to make sure that it will not be surprised when Transport Canada approves the flight.
The WestJet booking engine indicates that WS658 will be the first MAX flight with passengers on January 21, 2021. The flight is scheduled to take off from Calgary at local time of 08:00 am and arrive in Toronto after 3 hours and 51 minutes at local time of 01:51 pm.
Like most airlines, WestJet begins from the putting the aircraft back into service on a small scale. The carrier is expecting to operate with the aircraft three round trips a week during the first month of operation. All of these round trips will be between Calgary and Toronto. These will only take place after the non-commercial test of the aircraft beginning in mid of the month.
WestJet currently owns thirteen 737 MAX aircraft in its fleet. For the time being, it is not clear when the rival airline Air Canada will resume its 737 MAX flights.
