Aeromexico scheduled its first Boeing 737 MAX flights for December 21, 2020, which would put the airline as the second airline in the world to operate the type following its ungrounding.
Initially, the airline plans to fly four flights with the Boeing 737 MAX on December 21, 2020, as reported by PaxEx.aero. It will operate with the aircraft type from its Mexico City International Airport (MEX) hub. Gradually, Aeromexico will increase the number of daily flights. Starting December 24, 2020, more 737 MAX jets are scheduled to return to Aeromexico’s fleet.
Mexico‘s Federal Civil Aviation Agency (Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil, AFAC) ungrounded the Boeing 737 MAX on December 3, 2020. On the day, the agency issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) in which it outlined the requirements for air operators in order to operate the aircraft type.
“These actions do not allow the 737 MAX to immediately return to the skies, as it must pass the pilot training program reviews for each airline that operates the MAX and the requirements outlined in this Airworthiness Directive issued by the AFAC,” read the AD’s description.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its AD to allow the Boeing 737 MAX to fly once again on November 18, 2020. The green light was given after 20 months of grounding, since March 2019. The first airline to operate flights with the narrow-body jet was the Brazilian low-cost carrier GOL Linhas Aereas, which first took off with the type on December 9, 2020.
The second airline to operate the 737 MAX was previously expected to be American Airlines (A1G) (AAL), which indicated plans to operate flights between Miami International Airport (MIA) and New York’s LaGuardia (LGA) airport on December 29, 2020, with the type.
In total, Aeromexico has six 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet, in addition to four aircraft that are already built, but not yet delivered. In addition, four 737 MAX-9 narrow-bodies are also yet to be delivered to the airline. Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries data shows that the Mexican carrier has had a total of 60 737 MAX aircraft on order.