Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft are parked up at a gate in the terminal of Manchester Airport on March 12, 2019 in Manchester, England.Christopher Furlong | Getty ImagesEuropean regulators expect to clear Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX to return to service in January at the earliest, following flight trials by European test pilots currently scheduled for mid-December, Europe’s top air safety official told Reuters.The head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) declined to estimate when U.S. regulators would make their own decision to lift a flight ban imposed in March, but said any gap between the agencies would be a matter of weeks not months.Boeing has said it aims to return the jet to service by year-end following changes to cockpit software and training in the wake of two fatal crashes that sparked the grounding in March.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has primary responsibility for lifting the ban and is expected to be followed by other regulators including EASA, but there have been concerns that other agencies could be slow to act.”For me it is going to be the beginning of next year, if everything goes well. As far as we know today, we have planned for our flight tests to take place in mid-December which means decisions on a return to service for January, on our side,” EASA executive director Patrick Ky said late on Friday.He said a return to service of the MAX would be coordinated with the FAA as much as possible, but that the two agencies had slightly different processes and consultation requirements.”So we may end up with a couple of weeks of time difference but we are not talking about six months; we are talking about a delay which, if it happens, will be due mostly to process or administrative technicalities,” Ky added.Ky was speaking shortly before the disclosure on Friday of internal pilot messages from 2016 plunged Boeing into fresh turmoil. On Monday, he declined comment on the messages.
