While China’s airlines haven’t resumed using the plane, one of the jetliners operated by a Mongolian airline landed in Guangzhou

A Boeing Co. 737 MAX operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines landed in China on Monday in what industry experts say is the jet’s first commercial flight in Chinese skies since Beijing grounded the plane in 2019.

The 737 MAX jet flew to China’s southern city of Guangzhou from Ulaanbaatar, according to flight tracker Flightradar24. Chinese regulators gave MIAT permission to fly the 737 MAX into China in August, a spokesman for the Mongolian airline said in an email, adding that the jet had been leased out to another operator until now.

The flight by the non-Chinese carrier comes weeks after China’s air-safety regulators met with Boeing to discuss the 737 MAX in September. China grounded the series in early 2019—the first country to do so—after two deadly accidents in the space of less than six months in other countries. Chinese airlines have yet to resume commercial flights using the plane.

Qi Qi, a Chinese aviation analyst, said that the MIAT Mongolian Airlines flight is the first commercial flight for the 737 MAX in China since the grounding. The flight is another step toward a broad resumption of MAX’s commercial flights in China, he said.

Since late 2020, the 737 MAX has resumed operations in the U.S., Australia and Canada, among other countries. Only a handful, including China, are still grounding the model.

Excerpt from WSJ
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