It’s a busy week in New York this week, meeting with clients and research subscribers. While it is great to meet with many of you, it also leaves little time for preparing the analysis for this newsletter.

Instead, we’ll turn to Cranky Network Weekly and a recent analysis published looking at the 737 MAX’s long-haul flights.

For those unaware of Cranky Network Weekly, it is a regular report that dives deep into the network changes at the North American airlines (Canada, U.S., and Mexico). This week’s report was a measly 32 pages of tables, data visualizations, and analyses of trends we noticed in how the airlines are deploying networks.

The report is subscribed to by over 30 airlines in the region and goes directly to the network planning groups. It is used by airline investors, airports, and suppliers to stay close to the competitive shifts rapidly occurring within the airlines. Each report is published on a Sunday, ready for the Monday morning planning sessions.

Our focus is more traditionally on airline competitive moves in their networks (for instance, those aggressive routes overlapping Spirit in anticipation of… something); however, this week we also looked at the 737 MAX and the long-haul flights extending beyond 3,000 miles.

No fewer than eight transatlantic routes are scheduled on the MAX next summer, and that’s if you don’t count Iceland. Turkish uses the MAX to extend deep into Africa, but it is the Western Hemisphere where the type has found the bulk of its long legs.

Copa Airlines, by far, is the leading long-haul operator of the 737 MAX. This should come as no surprise, as Copa has long been the leading long-haul operator of the 737NG. The airline has more than tripled the number of its second operator of long-haul flights.

Leveraging its Panamanian headquarters geography, Copa will operate almost 1,500 flights next summer beyond 3,000 miles. But the airline isn’t the only mid-latitude Latin American airline taking advantage of its geography to connect North and South America.

Dominican startup Arajet operates the fifth most flights of long-haul 737 MAX aircraft, an impressive use of its 12-aircraft fleet delivering nearly 350 departures beyond 3,000 miles next July

If you’re interested in learning why we get anxious emails on Sunday evenings when the report is five minutes late, you can check out the website or request a sample report simply by replying to this email.

Research published this week

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