Boeing’s troubled 737 Max plane returned to American skies on Tuesday, carrying paying passengers in the US for the first time in almost two years. Those passengers were aboard American Airlines Flight 718, which left Miami around 10:30 a.m. and landed after 1 p.m. in New York, well ahead of schedule. The plane made the return trip on Tuesday afternoon, ending a long and difficult chapter for Boeing. The Max was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after 346 people were killed in a pair of crashes, separated by months, in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The accidents and revelations about the plane’s shortcomings sullied the company’s reputation and cost it tens of billions of dollars in damages, government fines and lost orders. The FAA, which has been criticized by lawmakers and safety experts for doing a poor job in certifying the Max in the first place, last month became the first major regulator to lift its grounding order. Boeing and the airlines that use the Max are required to install software updates, modify wiring and make other changes to the planes before they can fly again. American plans to use the Max for daily flights between Miami International Airport and La Guardia Airport through Monday. The airline plans to increase service after that, using the plane for as many as 38 flights a day through mid-February. Between mid-February and early March, American expects to operate as many 91 Max flights per day. The captain of the American flight on Tuesday, Sean Roskey, told passengers before taking off that he had “the utmost confidence in the safety of this aircraft". “I just want to thank all of you for your trust in all of us,” said Roskey.<br/>
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American Airlines expects the impact of the coronavirus pandemic to continue to weigh on demand and schedules into 2021, the carrier’s president said Tuesday. The airline is flying about 45% of its 2019 schedule this month, Robert Isom told reporters at Miami International Airport, before the debut of the Boeing 737 Max’s first US flight with commercial passengers since it was grounded nearly two years ago. “We anticipate that’s something that will carry on into January and February. We are hopeful that the vaccine will show some promise,” he said. American and its competitors have warned investors in recent weeks that a surge in Covid-19 cases and new travel restrictions have hurt fourth-quarter revenue, despite a spike in travelers around the year-end holidays.<br/>