Boeing has started to assemble the first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for Malta Air and will deliver it in the airline's own livery.
The Boeing 737 MAX was certified as safe by US late last year after it was grounded for several months following two fatal crashes that together killed 346 people - the 2018 Lion Air disaster in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines crash the following year.
Investigators said a main cause of both crashes was a faulty flight handling system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. Meant to keep the plane from stalling as it ascends, the automated system instead forced the nose of the plane downward.
The findings plunged Boeing into crisis, with more than 650 orders for the 737 MAX cancelled since last year.
Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, has so far operated six older versions of the Boeing 737, all still in the blue and yellow livery of the Irish low-cost airline.
But the aviation specialist website Simple Flying said new aircraft ordered by Ryanair and assigned to its subsidiaries Malta Air and Buzz will carry their own liveries. Ryanair has 210 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on order.
An enthusiast uploaded a picture of the winglets of a Boeing 737 MAX in Malta Air colours.
Ryanair ordered its first Boeing 737 MAX in 2014 but none were delivered, with the programme having been derailed when the MAX was grounded. 75 aircraft were ordered last November in a sign of confidence in the troubled aircraft after modifications were made.
The MAX has since returned to service in the United States and South America.
European authorisation next week
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) plans to authorise the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again next week.
"For us, the MAX will be able to fly again starting next week," after publication of a directive clearing the jet, EASA director Patrick Ky said in a video conference on Tuesday.
"We have reached the point where our four main demands have been fulfilled,"
Ky said during the conference, organised by the German association of aviation journalists.
Ky had already indicated in October that EU approval was likely after Boeing promised a new sensor would be added to prevent the type of problems that caused the 737 crashes.