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Alaska Airlines set to return 737 Max 9 aircraft to service Friday

By Dana Forsythe
Alaska Airlines has announced that it will return its 737 Max 9 aircraft to service on Friday. Photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines has announced that it will return its 737 Max 9 aircraft to service on Friday. Photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines

Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Alaska Airline has scheduled its first flight of its 737 Max 9 aircraft to service on Friday, leaving from Seattle this afternoon and landing in San Diego.

The departure of Alaska Flight 1146 will mark the first for this model of Boeing aircraft since the FAA to grounded the planes after a mid-air blow out earlier this month.

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The flight is set to leave Seattle at 2:20 p.m. Pacific Time, according to Alaska Airlines.

Alaska Airlines Flight 621 from Las Vegas to Portland, Ore., and Flight 1086 from Seattle to Ontario, Calif., both use 737 Max 9 and are set for later today as well.

On Thursday, Alaska Airlines issued a financial report that said the weekslong grounding of the troubled Boeing aircraft will cost the airlines $150 million.

Alaska Airlines said it had also started an "enhanced quality oversight program" at the Boeing production facility, adding to current staff that oversees validation of work and quality throughout the manufacturing process.

One day prior, the Federal Aviation Administration announced a plan to return the affected 171 grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 planes to the sky.

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"The January 5 Boeing 737-9 Max incident must never happen again," FAA administrator Mike Whitaker announced in a statement late Wednesday.

"Let me be clear: This won't be back to business as usual for Boeing," Whitaker said. "We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved."

United Airlines, the only other U.S. airline that operates the aircraft, told CBS News its 737 Max 9 fleet would begin returning to service on Saturday.

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