First flight of a Boeing 737 MAX by a Chinese airline since 2019

A commercial flight operated by a Boeing 737 MAX took place in China on Friday, the first by a Chinese company since March 2019, when the aircraft was banned from the country after two plane crashes.

The China Southern Airlines aircraft registered B-1206 (pictured above) took off at midday on flight CZ3960 from Guangzhou (Canton) to Zhengzhou, according to information given by Flightradar24.

China was the very first country in the world to order its carriers in March 2019 to suspend Boeing 737 MAX flights for safety reasons, after two accidents in a few months that killed  346 people. The ban was issued barely one day after an aircraft of this model, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa.

After 20 months of grounding, the aircraft was cleared to fly again in the United States. Then in most parts of the world, after modifications to the MCAS flight control software at the origin of the two accidents and new pilot training. However, China maintained its ban.

In December 2021, the Chinese regulator officially judged that the aeroplane was fit to fly again. China Southern was the first Chinese airline to return the 737 MAX to the skies on 13 January 2023.