Alaska Airlines will resume flying its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes on Friday afternoon.
The airline's first Max 9 operation -- following a nearly three-week FAA grounding of the aircraft after the exit-door plug blew out of one of its planes -- will be Flight 1146 from Seattle to San Diego, which is scheduled for departure on Friday, Jan. 26, at 2:20 p.m. Pacific time.
The FAA grounded 171 Max 9 planes in the U.S. after the plug blew out of a Jan. 5 Alaska flight shortly after takeoff from Portland. On Wednesday, the agency laid out a detailed inspection and maintenance process that airlines must undertake before resuming Max 9 service.
Alaska said in a statement Friday that its Max 9 planes would return to service "only after the rigorous inspections are completed and each plane is deemed airworthy according to FAA requirements."
The individual inspections are expected to take up to 12 hours per aircraft, it said.
Alaska expects to have its entire fleet of 65 Max 9s back in the air by late next week. The carrier said Thursday that the grounding will have a negative financial impact of approximately $150 million.
United, which operates 79 Max 9s, expects to begin putting its planes back in the sky on Sunday.