Tui Airlines Belgium quietly brought the Boeing 737 Max 8 with the registration OO-MAX back into commercial service. The medium-haul jet took off on Wednesday at 9:43 a.m. under the flight number TB1011 in Brussels with the destination Malaga. There were passengers on board.

This makes Tui Airlines Belgium the first European operator to use the Boeing 737 Max commercially again after a flight ban of almost two years. In January 2021, EASA granted re-approval subject to certain conditions. These must be met by both the manufacturer and the operator. The Belgian airline has carried out a few training flights in the last few weeks and, according to its own statements, can comply with all the requirements made by the European aviation authority.

Since the pattern has a bad reputation among the public due to the two fatal crashes that resulted in a worldwide flight ban, as well as the defects and inconsistencies discovered on the manufacturer's side, many carriers hold back with information about the re-use.

Icelandair recently transferred two machines to Keflavik and is planning them in Spring 2021 put into operation. The Czech Smartwings Group plans to resume commercial Max flight operations on February 25, 2021. The one affected by one of the two fatal crashes Ethiopian will continue to rely on this pattern.

The European “premiere flight” took the OO-MAX from Brussels to Malaga. Then it went on to Alicante and then back to the capital of Belgium. The carrier intends those four Boeing 737-Max, which were already delivered before the flight ban were to be put back into commercial liner service. The Tui Group expects the delivery of numerous other machines, many of which are also intended for Tuifly Germany.