China Southern Airlines to further inspect 737 MAX planes, WSJ reports

China Southern Airlines (CHKIF), which been readying to receive Boeing’s (BA) 737 MAX planes as early as January, is planning to conduct additional safety inspections on those aircraft following the Alaska Airlines (ALK) incident, though the jets to be delivered aren’t the same variant as Alaska’s MAX 9, Yoko Kubota and Raffaele Huang of Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be determined how long the additional inspections could take, but they add uncertainty to the timing of Boeing’s MAX deliveries, which have been frozen by Beijing for years since two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX 8, the Journal says. China’s aviation regulator has also instructed the country’s airlines to conduct precautionary safety inspections on their Boeing 737 MAX fleets, people briefed about the matter added.