A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 plane lands in Burlingame, California at San Francisco International Airport on March 13, 2019.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
United Airlines put the Boeing 737 Max back into service on Thursday, the second US airline to return the plane after two deadly crashes in 2019 grounded a global one.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the aircraft’s 20-month grounding in November after Boeing made software and other safety changes to its best-selling aircraft. The resumption of deliveries last year was a relief for Boeing. Grounding the planes left it running out of money, a crisis exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the demand for jet aircraft.
United’s first Max flight since aground took off from its Denver hub shortly before its scheduled 7:50 am Mountain time departure to Houston. United has planned about 550 flights with the Max this month and about 2,000 for March. The Chicago-based airline said it expects to take delivery of 24 Max aircraft this year and had 14 in its fleet at the time of grounding in March 2019.
American Airlines became the first US carrier to return the planes for commercial flights in December on flights from its Miami hub. Brazilian airline Gol was the world’s first airline to resume flights last year with the Max. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines will start flying their Max jets again next month.