Boeing’s troubled 737 Max aircraft is expected to return paying passengers across the United States for the first time in nearly two years on Tuesday.
These passengers will be on American Airlines Flight 718, which is scheduled to leave Miami shortly after 10:30 a.m. and land in New York at 1:30 p.m. This ends a long and difficult chapter for Boeing.
The Max was brought to the ground worldwide in March 2019 after 346 people were killed in two months-separate accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The accidents and revelations of the aircraft’s flaws have severely damaged the company’s reputation, costing tens of billions of dollars in damage, fines and lost contracts.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which has been criticized by lawmakers and safety experts for doing a poor job at certifying the Max, became the first major regulator to overturn its basic ordinance last month, allowing Boeing and the airlines that use the Max to make the changes necessary to get the plane flying again.
Regulators in Brazil have since joined the FAA. Canadian and European aviation officials are expected to submit approvals within weeks.
The families of those killed on board the two fatal flights argue that the Max is still not airworthy. Last week, they said in a letter to US lawmakers that “the entire recertification process is suspect”. A Senate committee released a damning report earlier this month criticizing Boeing and the FAA for safety and regulatory errors.
The Max is a workhorse of the global airline fleet used for domestic flights and some shorter international flights. It is significantly more fuel efficient than its predecessor and, as a smaller, single-aisle aircraft, the type of aircraft airlines have preferred in recent years to serve the growing demand for direct, non-stop flights.
Boeing has received a number of new orders for the Max in the past few weeks. Ryanair, the European low-cost airline, agreed to buy 75 Max jets, and Alaska Airlines added nearly two dozen aircraft to an order.
However, Boeing’s backlog decreased by more than 1,000 aircraft in 2020. The aircraft reintroduction is likely to slow as airlines grapple with the sharp and sustained decline in flight demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the United States, airlines generally carry fewer than half as many passengers as they did a year earlier.
American plans to use the Max for daily flights between Miami International Airport and La Guardia Airport through Monday. The airline plans to increase service in January and use the Max for up to 36 flights a day from Miami. This emerges from a letter that American executives sent to employees last month. Tuesday’s flight has room for 172 people, 16 in business class and the rest in economy.
United Airlines has announced that it will be using the Max in the first quarter of 2021. Southwest Airlines, a major Boeing customer that operates an All-737 fleet, does not expect the aircraft to fly in the second quarter. Delta Air Lines does not use the aircraft.
For the public perception of Boeing and Max it will be important that the first few months of flight are free of major problems. Last week, Air Canada was forced to divert a Max plane that was relocated from Marana, Arizona to Montreal because of an engine failure. The plane landed in Tucson, Arizona without incident, the airline said.
While American will be the first US airline to use the Max, Gol, a Brazilian company, was the first in the world to resume flight for commercial service this month.
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