Hainan Airlines is the second Chinese carrier to resume Boeing 737 MAX operations

Hainan Airlines became the second Chinese carrier to resume operations of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

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Yesterday, Wednesday 1 February, flight HU 7089 departed Haikou-Meilan International Airport (HAK) at 9:24 local time and landed at Kunming-Changshui International Airport (KMG) one hour and 42 minutes later. Service was performed with the Boeing 737 MAX 8 with registration B-207H, delivered to the airline in December 2018.

The aircraft had remained in ground storage since March 2019, when China became one of the first countries in the world to suspend operations of all 737 MAXs following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, the second of Boeing’s latest narrow-body model in less than five months.

The return of the Boeing 737 MAX to Chinese skies

As the months passed and safety upgrades were implemented, Boeing 737 MAXs re-entered commercial service around the world, with the exception of China: the Asian country took the longest to get the go-ahead. Geopolitical tension with the United States complicated the situation.

In September 2022, the American manufacturer announced that it would begin withdrawing engines from Chinese operators’ stocks in order to support new production. In mid-month, David Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, suggested that the company would begin remarketing the airplanes. Nearly a hundred aircraft remained grounded in the country, while about 150 deliveries were still pending.

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Finally, after almost a year of back-and-forth, the return was completed on Friday 13 January: that day, China Southern Airlines flight CZ 3960, operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8 with registration B-1206, linked the airports of Guangzhou-Baiyun (CAN) and Zhengzhou Xinzheng (CGO).