What’s new: China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. (600115.SH) is putting its fleet of nearly 90 Boeing 737-800 jetliners back in the air less than a month after one of its planes of that model crashed in southern China, killing all 132 people on board.
Since Sunday, a China Eastern-operated Boeing 737-800 has flown between Kunming in Southwest China’s Yunnan province and Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan, according to data from online aviation information platform VariFlight. The airline had been flying the route with a Boeing 737-700 in the immediate aftermath of the March 21 crash.
China Eastern said it has gradually resumed using 737-800s, with the exception of those made around the same time as the crashed plane. Those jetliners are still being evaluated, the state-owned People’s Daily newspaper reported Monday.
Background: On March 21, a China Eastern flight carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members crashed in Teng county, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. After the crash, China Eastern grounded all of its Boeing 737-800s, though Chinese officials did not announce a formal suspension.
China Eastern owns 89 of the 737-800s, China’s sixth-largest fleet of that model, Bloomberg data shows.
The crash remains under investigation. In the latest development from early April, U.S. crash investigators were assisting Chinese officials with downloading data from the crashed plane’s second black-box recorder.
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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