Washington (AFP)

Boeing will be able to start turning the page on the 737 MAX crisis, the United States having authorized the aircraft to fly again on Wednesday, nearly two years after it was immobilized on the ground following two accidents that killed 346 people in within five months.

Several modifications will need to be made to the devices before they can be returned to service.

The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), the air regulator in the United States, also specifies in a press release Wednesday that it still has to approve the training necessary for pilots before any flight of the Boeing 737 MAX in the sky American.

"It has been a long and grueling road to this decision," FAA Director Steve Dickson said in a video accompanying his decision.

"But we said from the start that we would take the time we needed to get it right. We were never guided by time, we followed a methodical and deliberate process."

Mr. Dickson himself flew the plane on a test flight in September.

Airlines will also have to carry out maintenance work on planes stationed on airport tarmacs since March 2019.

Planes stored at Boeing will need to be examined by an FAA inspector before being sent to customers.

The company American Airlines has nevertheless already planned a flight at the end of December, on a link between Miami and New York.

The 737 MAX, which was Boeing's sales engine before its setbacks, will not immediately return to the global sky: the civil aviation authorities of other countries have decided to carry out their own own certification.

The decision of the FFA is an "important step", reacted Boeing in a press release, ensuring it is ready to work with regulators around the world for a rapid return to service.

"These events and the lessons we learned from them have reshaped our business and focused more on our core values ​​of safety, quality and integrity," said CEO David Calhoun, quoted in the statement.

- Return complicated by the pandemic -

The Boeing 737 MAX will return to an area hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With financially struggling airlines and sluggish traffic, Boeing lost a total of 393 orders in the first ten months of the year.

The Seattle manufacturer will nevertheless be able to resume deliveries, which will allow it to be paid and to replenish its coffers.

It currently has 450 devices in stock.

The main modification to be made on the planes will be the MCAS flight control software, which the pilots of the flights of Lion Air, on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines, on March 10, 2019, have failed to master.

Other software must also be changed, as does the repositioning of some cables.

The crisis was deep for the company.

Dennis Muilenburg, boss of Boeing at the time of the accidents, left in December 2019 after several months of friction with the FAA.

Mr. Dickson criticized the group in particular for an "unrealistic" restart schedule.

Boeing estimates for now that the 737 MAX crisis cost it around $ 20 billion: $ 11.3 billion due to the direct and indirect costs associated with the production of the aircraft itself and the suspension of its manufacture for several months and 8.6 billion related to compensation offered to airlines.

"It's a floor," remarks Michel Merluzeau, of the AIR cabinet.

The immobilization of the devices on the ground also resulted in "two lean years in terms of the maintenance services associated with it", underlines the specialist.

Even if it is sometimes complicated to quantify them, we must add the costs related to the damage to the reputation of the group and the sums that the builder will pay to the families of the victims.

Also, the company is unlikely to sell as many 737 MAXs as it initially hoped for.

© 2020 AFP