Pobeda to order other jets if Boeing 737 MAX safety not solved Nov

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- Russian low-cost airline Pobeda, a unit of flagship air carrier Aeroflot, will order other planes instead of Boeing 737 MAX jets if the safety problem is not solved by the scheduled start of deliveries in November, Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Savelyev told reporters on Friday.

“If there is no 100% guarantee that this vehicle is safe, nobody will buy it. Deliveries for Pobeda are no earlier than in November 2019. By that time Boeing will either solve the problem with security of 737 MAX or we will order other aircraft,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Federal Air Transport Agency banned flights of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in Russia’s airspace until further notice after a recent crash of Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX 8 that killed 157 people. Another aircraft of the same model of Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed in October 2018.

Vedomosti business daily reported earlier on Friday citing sources that the Russian government’s commission on the defense industry suggested that Pobeda buy Russia-made MC-21 planes instead of Boeing 737 MAX.

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