Few aircraft elicit as much controversy as the Boeing 737 Max. In December, over 900 airports in more than 170 countries will see the 737 MAX 8 or 737 MAX 9. The world has an average of 5,490 roundtrip MAX flights a day.
Obviously, the US is vital. Due to Southwest, United, American, and more, 44 in every 100 services are to, from, and within the country. The US has seven times more services than India, the second most-served country for activity.
The world’s top 10 MAX airports
Eight of the leading facilities are in the US. They are so dominant globally that they account for 31% of the world’s activity.
Denver is the world’s leading MAX airport. This is thanks to it being Southwest’s most-served airport and a critical United hub (second by flights, first by seats). However, due to the extent of Denver’s overall activity, MAX aircraft ‘only’ operate one in seven services. The bog-standard 737-800 is still more common.
Baltimore was in the top table last year, replaced by San Francisco.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
As you can see, Dubai and Mexico City are the only non-US entries. Thanks to Dubai’s MAX flights rising by a fifth year-on-year (double the average of the top 10 facilities), it has jumped two places to second place in a year. What about other continents and regions?
London Stansted is the busiest European airport for MAX flights (due to Ryanair; the airport ranks 17th globally)
Panama City is first in Central America (COPA; 19th globally)
São Paulo Guarulhos is number one in South America (Gol; 21st)
Bengaluru tops Asia-Pacific (Akasa Air; 27th globally)
Addis Ababa leads in Africa (Ethiopian; 39th place)
Airport Avg. daily roundtrip flights in December* Top three MAX airlines** #1 MAX destination*** Denver 261 Southwest, United, Alaska Airlines Phoenix Dubai 242 flydubai, Oman Air, Air India Express Tel Aviv Mexico City 225 Aeromexico, American, Air Canada Cancun Newark 224 United, Alaska Airlines, American West Palm Beach Miami 186 American, United, Southwest Mexico City Las Vegas 172 Southwest, United, Alaska Airlines San Francisco Seattle 171 Alaska Airlines, United, Southwest Denver Phoenix 159 Southwest, American, United Denver San Francisco 154 United, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Las Vegas Los Angeles 152 United, Southwest, Alaska Airlines Seattle * Flights/31 days. MAX 8 and MAX 9 combined ** Ordered by flights ** All carriers combined
Related Delta Air Lines’ 35 Routes Taking Off In December Three of them have never been served by the carrier before.
Dubai is the leading MAX 8 airport
All the above data is based on combining both MAX variants. The results vary massively when each is considered individually.
Dubai is the world’s leading MAX 8 airport in December, with flydubai, Oman Air, Air India Express, Smartwings, LOT Polish, and Belavia all flying it there. According to ch-aviation, 56 of flydubai’s 59 MAXs are the -8.
Photo: Boeing
The variant is deployed to 107 airports. While Tel Aviv was first for all the type’s flights, Muscat leads for the MAX 8. Then there’s Tel Aviv, Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain, Warsaw, Karachi, Dammam, Bucharest, and Moscow Vnukovo.
What about the MAX 9?
It’s very different for this far less popular variant. Seattle ranks first mainly because of Alaska Airlines’s considerable number of them (it has 79 examples). United (83 of them) is the only other user in Seattle.
Photo: Ian Dewar Photography | Shutterstock
When they’re combined, they fly the -9 to 73 airports in December, with (you guessed it) Denver having the most flights. Los Angeles is second, followed by San Diego, Phoenix, San Francisco, Kahului, Las Vegas, Dallas/Fort Worth, Anchorage, and Chicago O’Hare.
1,900+ Daily Flights: The World’s Top 10 Airports For Boeing 737 MAX Operations
