The future of MAX 8: airlines, aviation officials meet today

Aviation officials from around the world are convening in Texas today for a meeting on the future of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, with at least one U.S. aviation official ready to delay the aircraft’s return to the skies as long as possible.

The Fort Worth meeting will see officials and airline representatives from more than 30 countries, including Canada, to discuss the plane’s future, following its March grounding after the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air flights.

READ MORE: U.S. aviation officials: birds may have been factor in MAX 8 crash

The BBC reported that while several airline reps were hopeful that the MAX 8 would return to service this summer, the reported quoted U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) acting director general Dan Elwell as stating "if it takes a year to find everything we need to give us the confidence to lift the [grounding] order so be it."

Another meeting is also taking place in Montreal, between airlines and the International Air Transport Association (IATA); few details have been released about the Montreal meeting, which IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac said was called to assess what the airlines "expect from the manufacturer and from the regulatory authorities."

The meetings come following Boeing’s announcement this week that it had completed a software update for its MAX 737 aircraft, which the manufacturer said would correct the flaw in the MCAS system believed to have caused the Ethiopian Airlines crash, along with the crash of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia a few months prior.

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