Is the 737 MAX actually needed by anyone?
With travel restrictions, people afraid of catching covid, economy crashing, and plenty of good competitor planes with better reputation, why would airlines need (or want) to buy these planes?
With travel restrictions, people afraid of catching covid, economy crashing, and plenty of good competitor planes with better reputation, why would airlines need (or want) to buy these planes?
Then COVID arrived and now suddenly everything is easy over zoom, email & chat. Even now that travel is allowed again in a lot of places I was supposed to jump to inside EU, no-one asks for it anymore. Saves everyone bucketloads of money (I wasn't sitting in economy), much better for the environment, and, for most purposes that the travel was thought to be vital for, it's actually more efficient this way. People are well rested and progress is made faster as people are less likely to fall into the bullshit of lengthy business lunches/dinners and late night drinks (basically getting hammered which in some circles was mandatory otherwise they wouldn't play) etc. Most of the people I work with (and have worked with for years) don't assume they or I will have to fly, when it's allowed again, more than once a year. And I don't miss it; it was really tiring.
Now seems like the ideal time to invest in these planes. Most people won’t care what metal they ride if it’s cheaper.
In short if you want the ~15% improvement in fuel efficiency of modern engines with the 737 airframe you need a MAX. It is bordering on impossible for Boeing to take the 737 airframe any further after the MAX.
Also, it's not just the 15% decrease on fuel burn (which obviously doesn't equate to a 15% cheaper flight) but Southwest was the launch customer for the 737 NG series which means their initial 737-700 planes are now 24 years old, which means increased maintenance costs; a 24 year old plane is probably coming up on its second (or third for planes that have a higher duty cycle) D check which would be approx USD1.1~1.8M depending on the amount of remedial work / engine replacement etc. So avoiding a D check can save a lot of money. Multiply that by the 495 737-NGs that Southwest has and it is a very big number.
Here's a link[0] that gives an idea of how modern commercial aircraft checks work.
[0] www.aircraftmonitor.com/uploads/1/5/9/9/15993320/basics_of_aircraft_maintenance_programs_for_financiers___v1.pdf