In March 2019, China was one of the first countries in the world to ground all 737 MAXs following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, the second of the model in less than four months.
It has also been the most reluctant to reauthorize the return of the MAX to active service on its local airlines, both for technical and geopolitical reasons.
But finally, after almost a year of headlines in which we saw how airlines in that country have been fine-tuning their 737 MAX, this Friday at 12:45 PM local time (4:45 GMT) China Southern Airlines flight CZ3960 took off from Guangzhou airport, operated with Boeing 737 MAX 8 registration B-1206. At the time of this publication it is at the halfway point.
There is another flight scheduled to be operated with a Boeing 737 MAX in the afternoon from Guangzhou to Wuhan.
While these are the first scheduled flights of the MAX by Chinese airlines, the model had already returned to the country in October last year on a MIAT flight between Ulaanbaatar and Guangzhou.
Nearly a hundred Boeing 737 MAXs were in storage in China, and Boeing reports had indicated that around 150 aircraft were pending delivery for airlines in the Asian giant.
Developing News
