All 11 Chinese Boeing 737 Max operators have resumed operation of the airplane as of April 10, the U.S. airframer reported today. The airlines have returned 43 Max jets to service, accounting for 45 percent of China’s Max fleet.
Boeing confirmed the numbers as it announced an upgrade of a flight training device (FTD) at its Shanghai Flight Training Campus to support Chinese airline operations. A fixed-base unit that simulates the airplane's flight deck and aircraft operations, the 737 Max FTD allows trainees to learn and practice before advancing to the final stage of the course in a full flight simulator.
Following its nearly four-year grounding resulting from the twin Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in October 2018 and March 2019, respectively, China Southern Airlines resumed commercial service of the model this past January 13 with a flight from Guangzhou to Zhengzhou.
The first revenue flight came more than a year after Chinese authorities issued an airworthiness directive on Dec. 2, 2021, that ostensibly marked an imminent return to service. Actions required for compliance include installation and verification of new software meant to correct flight control computer and display system anomalies, rerouting of wire bundles for the airplane’s horizontal stabilizer, installation of stall warning stick shaker circuit breakers, and various flight manual revisions.
At the time China's Civil Aviation Authority stood as the last major hurdle to the model’s full return to service among Boeing’s global customer base. In July of 2021, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said he expected China to clear the airplane for revenue flights by the end of that year. Calhoun did concede, however, that political risks remained a consideration, if not a worry. “I don’t want to imply that anything is risk-free on this front,” said Calhoun. “It’s not. It never will be, especially when it relates to China relations, which are real.”
Calhoun’s statement of reticence apparently proved prescient as it took another year and a half before Chinese authorities cleared China Southern to fly passengers on the airplanes.