After 18 months on the ground, the Boeing 737 Max will once again take to the skies this week, with Federal Aviation Administration chief, and former Delta Air Lines pilot, Steve Dickson at the controls. The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Africa.

Ahead of the flight, Dickson and FAA deputy, Daniel Elwel will undergo training that Boeing and the FAA have proposed for all Max pilots before piloting the plane again.

Boeing expects to receive approval to return the jet to service by the fall but the required pilot training schedule means it will likely be many weeks or months after the grounding is removed before it takes to the skies commercially.

European regulators said they hope to approve the Max as safe to fly by November.

Patrick Ky, Executive Director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has said that test flights and simulator flight sessions have gone well.