The work of the Chinese domestic airlines to resume the 737 MAX flight has been proceeding as scheduled recently. After China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines completed all the procedures required by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to put the 737 MAX into commercial operations, Fuzhou Airlines became the third domestic airline to resume the 737 MAX commercial operations.According to the VariFlight data, on the morning of 8:42 of February 15th, the Fuzhou Airlines FU6581 flight operated by the 737 MAX left Fuzhou Changle International Airport (FOC) and flew to Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO).

Earlier this year, on January 13th, the China Southern Airlines CZ3960 flight from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) to Zhengzhou Airport (CGO) became the first 737 MAX commercial flight in nearly four years. On February 1st, the Hainan Airlines HU7089 flight operated by 737 MAX flew from Haikou Meilan International Airport (HAK) to Kunming Changshui International Airport (KMG).

It is noteworthy that the three airlines that have resumed 737 MAX commercial operations are all within the jurisdiction of the CAAC Central and Southern Regional Administration.

Road to the resumption of commercial operations in China

The 737 MAX was first introduced in China in November 2017 due to its remarkable performance improvement and better fuel efficiency. The type has become the best-selling model of the Boeing Company and one of the airlines' favorite narrowbody aircraft. However, after less than two years of operations, the 737 MAX was grounded due to two fatal accidents.

At present, 737 MAX in China has been gradually resuming flights, but the amount is still limited, and the progress is slow in terms of scale and speed.

The airlines' resumption of flights with their 737 MAX planes is not a one-time full-scale relaunch. Currently, the 737 MAX planes flown by both China Southern and Hainan Airlines make up a low proportion of their respective 737 MAX fleets. According to the data from ATDB.com, China Southern's 737 MAX fleet consists of 24 planes, 6 of which are currently flying, making up 25% of the fleet; Hainan Airlines has 11 737 MAX planes, two of which are in operation, making up only 18%, meaning both airlines reactivated less than one-third of the size of their 737 MAX fleet.

In terms of daily utilization rate, the six 737 MAX aircraft of China Southern Airlines basically have one round trip per day and sometimes two round trips, with a daily utilization time of mostly around 4 hours and some up to 8 hours. Data from Hainan Airlines is roughly the same.

Looking back to the pre-COVID period, Hainan Airlines' 2018 financial report showed that the company's 737 MAX 8 model had a utilization rate of 8.53 hours that year.

Data from VariFlight also show that as of last week (February 6th – 12th), the domestic narrow-body aircraft utilization rate averaged 7.9 hours/day, and the recent 737 MAX aircraft utilization rate has not yet reached the average level.

Will Lucky Air be the fourth Chinese Airline to resume 737 MAX operations?

One of Lucky Air's 737 MAX, which has been stationed at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) for more than four years, took off for Haikou Meilan Airport (HAK) at around 10:21 am on the 16th and officially began its journey back to the blue sky.

This means that all three 737 MAXs of Lucky Air have been flown to Haikou to be unsealed, and the first unsealed (B-1143) is scheduled to fly to Kunming after completing the training at Bo'ao on the 20th and enter commercial operations.

Source: VarFlight

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