SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines has resumed flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts on Friday afternoon after it completed inspections on the first group in its fleet.
Flight 1146 took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just before 4:00 p.m. and is headed to San Diego.
It’s the Seattle-based airline’s first Max 9 flight since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the aircraft nearly three weeks ago after a door plug blew out from the plane’s side panel on a Portland flight Jan. 5.
Alaska Airlines said the Max 9 that left Seattle, Flight 1146, is just one of three of their Max 9 aircrafts expected to be operating on Friday.
Some passengers flying on other Alaska Airlines flights at Sea-Tac on Friday said they are still apprehensive.
"I am sure they have done their due diligence. But, you know, I'm glad that we're not on that first flight. We'll let a few of those go before we get on one," said Kiara Hancock, who lives in Tacoma and was traveling to San Francisco.
Other passengers said they are just pleased that planes are going back in operation.
"I think it's nice to put the airplanes back in the air," said David Holk, who was flying home to Ketchikan, Alaska. "As long as they have been inspected, I don’t see any problem with it."
The FAA approved an inspection and maintenance process for the planes on Jan. 24, which cleared the way for airlines to resume flying Max 9s.
Alaska Airlines said it started inspecting the planes that night. Individual inspections take about 12 hours per aircraft, according to Alaska.
It expects inspections on its entire fleet of 65 Max 9 jets will be completed by the end of next week, which will allow Alaska to resume its complete flight schedule. Alaska and United Airlines – the only other U.S. operator that flies Boeing 737 Max 9 jets – have had to cancel hundreds of flights since the grounding occurred.
Alaska Airlines said they had to cancel around 150 flights Friday due to Max 9 jets still being inspected.
United plans to resume flights on Max 9 jets on Sunday.
Alaska said Thursday that the Max 9 grounding would reduce full-year profit by $150 million and slow the airline’s planned growth. United also said it expects to lose money in the first quarter due to the grounding.
Alaska Airlines officials said Thursday that they have lost a few sales among people purchasing flights into February — a phenomenon called “booking away” in the airline business. They didn't say how many people have booked away from the Max 9, but they predicted it would only last a few weeks.
Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci said “at first, people will have some questions, some anxiety,” but that “over time” confidence in the plane's safety will be restored.