Previously Undisclosed Numbers Prove Telling

Boeing has disclosed the by-model breakdown of its 4,339 gross unfilled 737 MAX family orders.

Made public on 08 August 2023, the breakdown evinces the success of the 737 MAX-10, the largest variant of Boeing’s long-running 737 family of narrow-body aircraft. Designed to accommodate up to 230 passengers, the MAX-10, which isn’t likely to receive FAA certification for a number of months, has, as of 31 July 2023, booked upwards of eight-hundred unfulfilled orders.

While the exact timeline of the MAX-10’s entry into service remains subjective, an individual involved with the aircraft’s certification set forth Boeing projects the model will be flying paying passengers by mid-2024.

The inaugural 737 MAX model, the MAX-8—which seats between 162 and 178 revenue passengers—remains the heart of the 737 MAX family, with nearly one-thousand units already delivered and north of 2,700 orders yet to be filled.

Boeing has also delivered 124 specimens of the MAX-8-200, a high-density variant of the MAX-8, the designation of which derives of the jet’s two-hundred seat capacity. The aircraft was designed at the behest of Ryanair, which is patiently awaiting deliveries of another 344 specimens of such.

Some 187 737 MAX-9 jets are in operation with world airlines, while another 137 units have yet to be delivered.

The smallest and as-of-yet-also-uncertified model in the 737 MAX family, the MAX-7, has racked up 297 orders—nearly two-thirds of which are to be decked out in Southwest Airlines livery.

Boeing's official MAX backlog stands at 3,839 aircraft—a figure shy of the gross total insomuch as it omits some five-hundred MAX family orders grown doubtful over the course of the type’s protracted and very public travails.

Among those airlines grown tepid vis-à-vis Boeing’s MAX family are China’s state-owned airlines, to which 118 737 MAX aircraft were to have been delivered. Until the U.S. once again enjoys positive diplomatic relations with Beijing, the aforementioned aircraft are likely to linger in the uncertain limbo between storage and resale.

FMI: www.boeing.com