Inside Boeing's Smallest New Airliner, the 737 MAX 7
Boeing's latest narrow-body jet is now flying with a handful of airlines, from Norwegian to FlyDubai, but the 737 MAX made its public debut just two years ago, at the 2016 Farnborough Air Show.
Since then, the mid-range MAX 8 has carried countless passengers around the world, as Boeing has continued to roll out other variants — from the longer 737 MAX 9, which debuted at the Paris Air Show and is now flying with United Airlines within the US, to the smaller MAX 7, which popped up for the first time at Farnborough just last week.
Given that you're by now probably well acquainted with the larger MAX variants — the MAX 8 and MAX 9 — I'm going to keep things short with the "little guy" today:
While it offers nearly 400 miles more range, the MAX 7 is considerably smaller than the workhorse MAX 8, which can accommodate nearly 40 more passengers in a high-density configuration. In fact, the smallest MAX fits roughly the same number of passengers as the new Airbus A220-300 — a far more popular aircraft.
| 737 MAX 7 | 737 MAX 8 | 737 MAX 9 | 737 MAX 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Max Seats | 172 | 210 | 220 | 230 |
Length | 116 ft., 8 in. | 129 ft., 8 in. | 138 ft., 4 in. | 143 ft., 8 in. |
Range (miles) | 4,430 | 4,080 | 4,080 | 3,800 |
There's no question that the MAX 7 is a beaut, but sadly the plane's good looks haven't helped boost its popularity. Southwest is currently the 7's largest customer, with orders for 30 planes, but there's always a chance the airline could choose to add more MAX 8s to the fleet, instead.
Hopefully, if airlines do eventually take delivery of the smallest MAX, they also decide to abandon those awful lavatories flying with the larger planes today.
Sadly the small lav and sink is present on Boeing's test plane, as I saw at the Farnborough Air Show. But for better or worse, it appears that pilots and engineers don't have to deal with those horrendous sinks — the rear lav sink was inoperable during my tour, having been replaced with a bottle of hand sanitizer, instead.
For more from the Farnborough Air Show, see:
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The Capital One Venture X Business Card has all the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has to offer and more. It offers an incredible welcome bonus and requires an equally impressive spend to qualify. In addition, the card comes with premium travel perks like annual travel credit. (Partner offer)Pros
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Cons
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- Another drawback is that the annual travel credit can only be used on bookings made through Capital One Business Travel.
- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn up to 400K bonus miles: 200K miles when you spend $30K in the first 3 months, and an additional 200k miles when you spend $150k in the first 6 months
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, everywhere—with no limits or category restrictions
- Earn 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Business Travel
- With no preset spending limit, enjoy big purchasing power that adapts so you can spend more and earn more rewards
- Empower your teams to make business purchases while earning rewards on their transactions, with free employee and virtual cards. Plus, automatically sync your transaction data with your accounting software and pay your vendors with ease
- Redeem your miles on flights, hotels and more. Plus, transfer your miles to any of the 15+ travel loyalty programs
- Every year, you'll get 10,000 bonus miles after your account anniversary date. Plus, receive an annual $300 credit for bookings made through Capital One Business Travel
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Enjoy access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month