Boeing says about 90% of its China 737 MAX fleet have resumed commercial operation

BEIJING (Reuters) – About 90% of Boeing (NYSE:)’s China 737 MAX fleet have resumed commercial operation as of the end of June, the U.S. aircraft maker said on its official WeChat account on Wednesday.

Some planes have been dispatched to regional international routes, Sherry Carbary, president of Boeing China, said in the article.

China grounded its entire Boeing 737 MAX fleet after an air crash of one 737 MAX jet operated by Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019, the second deadly accident of the model in five months.

According to official information, Chinese carriers grounded all 96 jets they had at the time.

“By the end of June, about 90% of China’s 737 MAX fleet had resumed commercial operations, with some of the aircraft placed on regional international routes connecting domestic cities to a number of destinations in Central Asia and Southeast Asia,” Carbary said in the article.

State-owned China Southern Airlines was the country’s first carrier to resume the flying of the 737 MAX in January, after the plane was grounded for nearly four years.

Chinese airlines then has been gradually reintroducing the model back to operation and in April Boeing estimated that half of the country’s MAX fleet was in operation.