The domestic flight took off from Haikou, capital city of China's southern Hainan province, at 0923 a.m. local time (0123 GMT) using the 737 MAX plane and headed to the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, according to flight tracking app VariFlight.

Last month, China Southern Airlines Co Ltd scheduled a flight from the southern city of Guangzhou to Zhengzhou using a MAX which made its first passenger flight in China in nearly four years.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun pointed toward future increases in narrow-body jet production and voiced hopes that an upcoming visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would lead eventually to "robust" plane orders.

(Reporting by Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Louise Heavens)