Shortly after Ethiopia announced the return of commercial flights with the Boeing 737 MAX, Indonesia also lifted the ban on the aircraft on Tuesday.
The Asian nation’s Minister of Transport announced the end of the ban on revenue flights with the single-aisle jet, just over three years after the fatal accident with Lion Air Flight 610, which killed 189 people on board.
At the time, despite evidence, there was no decision to ground the 737 MAX, which only came after the second fatal accident with an Ethiopian Airlines jet in March 2019.
According to the Indonesian government, airlines operating the aircraft must follow airworthiness directives and inspect the 737s before putting them back into flight.
Lion Air currently owns nine Boeing 737 MAX 8, all of them received between 2017 and 2018. The state-owned Garuda Indonesia has only one aircraft of this type, however, it is undergoing a restructuring process and has no plans to return to using the jet.
