Southwest on Thursday became the final U.S. carrier to relaunch its fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets.
The carrier put 10 of the jets back into service on Thursday and will use the Max on up to 44 daily flights to 15 cities for the next several weeks. Southwest expects to resume Max operations throughout its network by mid-April.
The airline followed American and United, which put the Max back into the sky earlier this winter. In addition, Alaska introduced Max service for the first time early this month.
The FAA cleared the Max for resumed commercial operations in November following a 20-month grounding. The global grounding was issued after a software defect caused the aircraft to crash twice in five months, killing a combined 346 people.
Southwest ended 2020 with 41 Max aircraft in its fleet of 718 planes. The carrier expects to end this year with 69 Max 8 aircraft.