A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft lands at San Francisco International Airport on March 13, 2019 in Burlingame, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
United Airlines returned the Boeing 737 Max to service on Thursday, the second U.S. airline to bring the plane back after two fatal accidents led to worldwide stranding in 2019.
The Federal Aviation Administration suspended the 20-month suspension of the planes in November after Boeing made the software and other security changes to its best-selling plane. The resumption of deliveries last year was a relief for Boeing. The stranding of the planes left him penniless, a crisis that was exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on demand for jet planes.
United’s first Max flight since landing left its Denver hub just before 7:50 am, mountain departure time for Houston. United has about 550 flights scheduled with Max this month and about 2,000 in March. The Chicago-based airline said it expects to receive 24 Max planes this year and had 14 in the fleet at the time of stranding in March 2019.
In December, American Airlines became the first airline in the United States to return planes to commercial service with flights departing from its Miami hub. The Brazilian operator Gol was last year the first airline in the world to resume flights with Max. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are scheduled to start flying their Max jets again next month.