Nearly four years after the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded, China’s Hainan Airlines has resumed passenger flights with the model in China.
On February 1, 2022, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, registered B-207H, of the Chinese airline departed on the first scheduled domestic passenger trip, HU7089.
The aircraft, which had a flight history recorded on Flightradar24.com, took off from Haikou Meilan International Airport (HAK) in Hainan Province at at 1.25 a.m. (UTC) and landed at Kunming Changshui International Airport (KMG) in Yunnan Province over two hours later.
According to the flight history, the plane was transported by ferry the day before from Qionghai Bo’ao Airport (BAR) in Hainan to HAK airport. Since the MAX jet’s ungrounding in the nation in January 2023, Hainan Airlines is China’s second airline to resume passenger operations with the aircraft.
The nation’s largest airline, China Southern Airlines, was the first to do so on January 13, 2023, when it restarted MAX operations by turning on its two of the kind. After the 737 MAX’s second fatal incident within six months, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was the first to halt the aircraft in March 2019.
A total of 346 persons were killed in the accidents, which occurred in Ethiopia and Indonesia. 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are now in the fleet of Hainan Airlines, according to the Planespotters.net registry. There were 10 aircraft designated as parked as of February 1, 2023.
