For Southwest, both the -800 and Max 8 have 175 seats. The -800 is the more numerous of the two, at 207 aircraft versus 31 for the Max 8. Southwest also has 512 -700 aircraft with 143 seats.
The Max 8 has more fuel efficient engines, resulting in longer range, so it would not be surprising to find them on longer routes.
@barbalot, I’m sure they do use them on the more popular routes. My flight to San Diego has a stopover in Las Vegas. The leg to Las Vegas is a 737 Max.
I don’t think it matters a whole lot of whether it was human error or a malfunction when one perishes. We might feel we’re good drivers, but the other drivers matter too. Every single close call I’ve had has been due to the other driver - most of them distracted on phones and just looking up last minute - one time when I had already completely stopped seeing them coming in my lane. I’m still surprised we didn’t connect on that one. Another really close call had another driver turning left ahead of me (from the other direction) when I had the green light going straight. We had to fix our brakes before we could drive the car again after that one. It really doesn’t matter how safe “I” am as a driver since I don’t have the road to myself.
Of all the folks I know who have died in car crashes IRL (personally interacted with them - not just know “of” them), only three I can think of were the driver of the car at fault. I can think of at least 12 off the top of my head. I don’t know anyone IRL who has died in a plane crash. I know of one person (a friend’s dad), but he was the pilot of a small plane, not a commercial jet. I’ve seen plenty of car crashes, some deadly. I’ve never actually seen a plane crash (and hope I never do TBH).
This is comparing apples to oranges. We are only comparing deadly crashes - not fender benders. Planes win for safety with far fewer fender benders too.
But I’m still glad to see so many countries grounding the planes until there’s a fix or they find out one isn’t needed. I’m very pro car recalls when needed too - and any legislation trying to prevent distracted/drunk/sleepy drivers as they are a major problem no matter how “good” they think they are.
I just booked 5 of us for August flights to Maui…I am confident the situation will have been resolved, one way or the other, by then. I’m also confident SWA will not swap in the MAX before a complete resolution.
https://beatofhawaii.com/boeing-737-max-8-flights-to-hawaii/
https://beatofhawaii.com/southwest-hawaii-airline-update/
“Aircraft for Hawaii flights. Flights are still set to start on existing 737-800 aircraft, as are being used by other carriers on flights to Hawaii. They will then transition to their new 737 MAX 8 and perhaps 737 MAX 7. The latter brings cities like Denver into range.”
New proverb, if it’s Boeing I ain’t going.
Anyone else recall when the MD-80s had all the problems?
SWA has one flight a day from LA → Chicago Midway that flies the Max but the rest appear to use the 737-800
If you want a cheap fare and room to spread out, that’s the flight to take.
Probably true, however I was able to switch to a different flight without paying a change fee!
Yeah. Got to spend an extra 2 days in Florida. They ended up flying us first class home and I was able get a few vouchers out of them for a future flight.
As I recall though, that was a wiring harness that had to be replaced on all the planes.
Why are we the only country not grounding Max 8. We grounded the Dreamliner when there was a safety issue.
Just watching news on TV about this issue. Apparently WS Journal reported that Boeing had a software fix and it was supposed to be rolled out in Jan, but FAA and Boeing were having a “discussion” about how extensive the fix needed to be, and due to the government shut down the discussion was on hold for 5 weeks. Now the fix is to be pushed out in April. You would think we would ground all Max 8s until the fix is out.
If Boeing knew there was a problem, you would think they would let the airlines know so they could make appropriate decisions. I just hope Boeing has very good liability insurance. I am glad I do not own any Boeing stocks.
Hoping these planes get grounded here too. And soon.
Canada is still a separate country. They haven’t been annexed yet.
I predict the US and Canadian airlines will stop flying the affected planes long before the week is over, with or without an order order from FAA. They can’t fly the planes into any other country. The consumers are boycotting these planes, and even similar planes that aren’t affected for confusion or the fear of substitution. They may even try to fly less. It’s just bad for airline business.
My sibling flies a 737- private plane for a wealthy individual. The owner of the plane was looking at replacing it and is halting the order. It was going to be one of these planes. I’m rather glad that my sibling won’t be piloting one of these in the near term at least.
It’s interesting people kept on saying “flying is still safer than driving.” That may be the case when you include all other safe planes in the calculation, but probably not the case if you just look at Max 8 by itself. If we knew there was a faulty break on a particular brand of car, that car would have recalled and serviced.
If what I’ve heard has been correct, there have been somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 flights of the Max 8 since it started flying in 2016. Two have crashed. Anyone reading can do the math.
I still feel it should be grounded until it’s known for sure if there’s a flaw or not, esp since it seems like there is and Boeing knows about it, but it’s still pretty low odds of a crash.
Cars get recalled, but that also takes time and plenty of people still drive recalled vehicles before they’re fixed (like with the current airbag situation) thinking nothing of it. My lad just received a recall notice on his Subaru a couple weeks ago due to the airbag. It’s not getting fixed until April 1st (soonest he could get an appt). He still drives it. He’ll actually be taking us to the airport in it later this week and picking us up a week later - both trips prior to it getting fixed - plus he takes it to work and everything else.
Exactly. I know that flying is safer in the aggregate, but what about “flying on the Max 8” versus “flying on all the other planes”? As far as I can tell, no one is singling out all air travel, just that on the Max.
No one quit driving all together just because the Ford Pinto was a deathtrap.
@scout59 - exactly! If you had a choice between the Pinto and anything else, you would choose to not ride in the Pinto.