(Yicai Global) Jan. 13 -- China Southern Airlines has flown a Boeing 737 Max for the first time since the aircraft was grounded in 2019 following two deadly crashes.

Flight CZ3960 flew on schedule from Guangzhou to Zhengzhou in China earlier today. Another 737 Max airliner will also fly from the provincial capital of Guangdong to Wuhan in the afternoon.

China’s entire fleet of Boeing 737 Max was grounded after two operated by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, respectively, causing 346 deaths. China has 97 of the jets, accounting for more than a quarter of the global total, and China Southern has 24, making its the largest domestic fleet of the aircraft.

With China’s civil aviation industry gradually recovering after the pandemic, other airlines will likely follow Guangzhou-based China Southern in bringing back the 737 Max, an industry insider told Yicai Global.

US plane maker Boeing grounded all 737 Max aircraft between March 2019 and December 2020. After modifying its systems, carriers in the US and other countries resumed flying their 737 Max fleets at the end of 2021.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China, the first regulator globally to ground the 737 Max, issued airworthiness instructions for the plane’s modifications in December 2021.

Following that, airlines had to decide whether to resume using the planes, but because of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in various parts of China, travel demand was sluggish, so airlines were not enthusiastic about getting the 737 Max back to work, the insider noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione