TUI’s Boeing 737 Max flight marks revised jet’s European return

TUI AG became the first company in Europe to begin flying passenger services with the revised Boeing Co. 737 Max jet, kicking off with a trip from Brussels to Malaga in Spain earlier on Wednesday.

The leisure group conducted readiness tests for its Max jets and plans to operate the aircraft type from the Belgian capital on a weekly basis, a spokesman said by email. The first flight, which departed at about 9:40 a.m. local time, used a Belgian-registered 737 Max 8 that the carrier received in 2018, according to plane-tracking website radarbox.com.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency last month cleared the Max to resume flying, a major step in the narrow-body’s global rehabilitation after two fatal crashes led to its grounding in March 2019. Airlines in the U.S. and Brazil restarted commercial flights in late 2020 after regulators there cleared a return.

Czech operator SmartWings AS has said that it will begin operations with the model this month and aims to return all its Max jets to service by the summer. Icelandair Group Hf has said it will bring back the jet this spring.