After manufacturing issues led to two incidents in 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded across the world. In 2021, after rigorous testing, Civil Aviation Authorities in many places in the world cleared the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Brazil, and the EU.
The 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia but has returned to service around the world with the exception of China and Russia after modifications to the aircraft and pilot training. Foreign airlines began flying the 737 MAX to China in October 2022.
The MAX airplane has been “recertified” by the FAA, and more than 900 of these planes are now flying around the world.
“The 737 MAX fleet has operated for 1.8 million flight hours – about 800,000 flights – since November 2020. Fleet reliability is above 99.5% - that is actually where the Next-Generation 737 was at, so it's on par with the airplane it's replaced.” Schedule reliability of 99.5% is an impressive number indeed.
Because of the sheer intensity of the scrutiny the aircraft faced, the Boeing 737 MAX could be considered one of the safest in the world. In fact, among the dozens of models of commercial airliners around the world, it is likely the safest due to the amount of regulation testing that took place.
Nearly 1,000 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are currently active across the skies.
The move away from the MAX name has been a subtle process and Boeing has begun to use the name 737 MAX and 737-8(7 through 10) interchangeably. This way they are transitioning away from the MAX name toward the normal naming convention of modern Boeing aircraft.
Due to hold limitations, QANTAS won't opt for Boeing 737Max. It will go Airbus all the way, due to its' superior hold capacity for pallets, & better all-round design.
The ultimate Boeing 737 MAX question is always, 'is it safe now? '. The answer to that is a resounding yes. The plane has been described as one of the most scrutinized aircraft in aviation history, with authorities like the FAA, EASA, and many more taking a very close look at the plane.
With two crashes causing fatalities, the fatal-accident rate of the 737 Max would be 4 flights per million. That's far higher than for most modern airliners.
Virgin Australia has announced four additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will join its fleet with delivery starting in the second half of 2023, increasing capacity in line with the airline's fleet growth program and journey towards Net Zero.
The FAA ultimately grounded the MAX on March 13, 2019 and lifted the flight prohibition order in November 2020 after Boeing made a series of software upgrades and training changes.
On the domestic side of its operations, a combined 95 total Boeing 737 and 717 aircraft will be retired and replaced by the incoming orders for the new A321XLRs and A220-300s, which Airbus will start to deliver late next year.
Boeing's best-selling aircraft is now flying again in the world's major markets aside from Russia. China, the first country to ground the Max after the Ethiopia disaster, approved its return to service in December 2021, saying it was satisfied with updates to software linked to the crashes.
An easy way, for now, to avoid the 737-MAX is to figure out which airlines are flying the plane, and when. If you don't want to fly it, the simplest solution would be to choose another airline. Here's the airlines with firm orders, or letters of intent to fly the 737 MAX, many of which have already been delivered.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is a new plane that had its first flight in January 2016. Despite its short time on the market, the MAX 8 has been involved in two tragedies in fewer than five months: the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash on March 10, 2019, and the Lion Air Flight JT 610 crash on Oct. 29, 2018.
Utilizing the International Civil Aviation Organization safety occurrence data, from 2008 to 2019, these aircraft were compared in terms of occurrence type, occurrence category, phase of flight, injury level, and fatalities. It was found that Boeing had more accidents than expected, while Airbus had less (p = 0.015).
The MAX resumed commercial flights in the U.S. in December 2020, and was recertified in Europe and Canada by January 2021.
The Australian airline has eight 737 MAX 8 on order and preparing for its inaugural Cairns - Tokyo flight. Virgin Australia is patiently waiting for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8s, with the airline expecting its first delivery this April. These aircraft will feature the airline's new business and economy class cabins.
Union officials indicate that pilots like the Max and are confident in the changes from Boeing. Representatives of three unions said that crews were largely happy with the plane and added that, except at a select few airlines, training backlogs were the biggest challenge to getting more pilots in the cockpit.
On an American Airlines Boeing 737-800, for example, the seat-rating site SeatGuru warns of several “bad” seats, denoted in red. They include all the seats in row 30, at the back of the aircraft. The reasons are obvious: Like Conway's, the seats in row 30 are next to lavatories and don't fully recline.
As of March 2022, there has been a total of 503 aviation accidents and incidents involving all 737 aircraft, including 219 hull losses resulting in a total of 5,717 fatalities. The 737 first entered airline service in February 1968; the 10,000th aircraft entered service in March 2018.
The Boeing 737 MAX is heavier than the 737NG and has more fuel-efficient engines and new winglets.
Despite its shorter fuselage, it shares the same 35.92-meter-wide (117 feet and 10 inches) wingspan as its larger Boeing 737 MAX 8, 9, and 10 counterparts. The next largest variant of the Boeing 737 MAX series is the popular MAX 8, which clocks in at 39.47 meters (129 feet and 6 inches) long.