United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) has announced it expects to begin commercial B737-9 operations during the second quarter of this year.

Following the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) decision to award the model an amended type certificate earlier this week, United said it expected to begin MAX 9 operations on June 7 with flights from its Houston Intercontinental hub to Anchorage Ted Stevens, Austin-Bergstrom International, Fort Lauderdale International, Orlando International, and San Diego International.

This will be followed by the start of flights from Houston to each of Los Angeles International, Tampa International, and Sacramento International as well as from Los Angeles to Honolulu on June 29.

The MAX 9s will feature 179 seats including 20 United First seats in a 2-2 configuration, 48 in Economy Plus in a 3-3 configuration, and 111 United Economy seats in a 3-3 configuration.

This year alone, United will take delivery of ten B737 MAX 9s from Boeing (BOE, Washington National). In total, the carrier has 135 B737 MAX on firm order from Boeing of which 100 are B737-10s due to deliver from late 2020 onwards.