MIAT - Mongolian Airlines (OM, Ulaanbaatar) operated a roundtrip between Ulaanbaatar International and Guangzhou with its only B737-8, EI-MNG (msn 43795), becoming the first carrier to fly the type to China since March 2019.

Flight OM235/6 would normally have been operated with B737-800s given its resumption in early September 2022. However, on October 10, the carrier deployed its sole MAX 8 on the route. It has not flown it again since then as the service is scheduled 4x weekly.

MIAT did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment, and it is not clear on what regulatory basis the B737 MAX was permitted to fly into China. The airline's only aircraft of the type was until recently wet-leased to Tunisair (TU, Tunis). It returned to Mongolia at the end of September 2022 and has since then been used to operate just two scheduled rotations - to Guangzhou and Tokyo Narita, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was the first regulator globally to...