Ethiopian aims to fly Max jet by January after Boeing deal

Bloomberg

Ethiopian Airlines Group plans to resume flights with the Boeing Co 737 Max jet by early next year after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the US planemaker over a deadly crash in March 2019.
Chief Executive Officer Tewolde GebreMariam is now convinced “beyond reasonable doubt” the model is safe after various modifications. He had previously said Africa’s biggest carrier would be the last to return to the Max after it was cleared to fly again by regulators. Many other airlines already have the model back in service.
“I can confirm that we are committed to the Boeing 737 Max,” the CEO said in an interview. “My estimate is by the end of the calendar year or beginning of next year, January, we will be flying the airplane.”
The deal Ethiopian has reached with Boeing over the crash that killed 157 people is confidential, but the airline considers the matter finalised.
“We have settled our case with Boeing, that’s why we are now starting the process to fly back the airplane,” Tewolde said. “This happened in the last three months. We are happy on the settlement.”
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa five months after a similar incident in Indonesia, triggering a grounding of the Max worldwide. Boeing reached a $2.5 billion agreement earlier this year to settle a criminal charge that it defrauded the US government by concealing information about the jet.