Next Friday will mark two weeks since the controversial incident involving an unused emergency exit door in the cabin of a Boeing 737-9 on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. Following this, 171 units of the certified variant in the United States of the 737 MAX family model were grounded for additional inspection.
However, according to data provided by Cirium and the Flightradar24 app, a handful of 737 MAX 9 variants are still in service for six airlines: Air Tanzania, Copa Airlines, Corendon Dutch Airlines, Flydubai, Icelandair, and SCAT, totaling 27 aircraft in operation.
These specific aircraft continue to fly because they are not covered by the Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued by the FAA, as their configuration differs from the one being investigated by the regulator and echoed by other global aviation authorities.
There are currently three configurations: one in which the emergency exit is deactivated, another where it was directly replaced by a plug with a standard window (as in the Alaska Airlines fleet), and another, used in higher-density cabins, with active emergency exits (only present in 11 aircraft).
See also: Boeing 737 MAX -9 Decompression: NTSB Investigation Could Take up to 18 Months
Details of Boeing 737 MAX 9s in Service
According to the summary of orders and deliveries from manufacturers, eleven airlines have received 217 Boeing 737-9s, of which 12.4% are currently in commercial service.
Copa Airlines has the highest number of 737-9s in operation, with 8 out of 21. The operational aircraft range from registration numbers HP9901CMP to HP9908CMP, representing the airline’s initial MAX deliveries between 2019 and 2021.
See Also: Over 20% of Copa Airlines Flights Affected by the Grounding of 737 MAX 9
Following closely is SCAT, based in Kazakhstan, the only Central Asian airline operating the model, with five aircraft (UP-B3726, -B3727, -B3738, -B3739, and B3740).
Six 737-9s are in normal operation for two European airlines, four of which belong to Icelandair (TF-ICA, ICB, -ICC, and -ICD) and two to Corendon Dutch Airlines (PH-CDQ and -CDP).
In the Middle East, the only airline operating Boeing 737-9s is Flydubai, with three aircraft (A6-FNA, FNB, and FNC), now primarily deploying them to Saudi Arabia, Maldives, and Iraq, when they usually fly to European destinations.
The only African airline with a single Boeing 737-9 is Air Tanzania, with registration number 5H-TCP.
It should be noted that the three Boeing 737-9s operated by Lion Air are not affected by the Emergency Airworthiness Directive, although the airline has stated that, as a precaution, it has grounded this specific model (understandable considering the Flight 610 tragedy that sparked the 737 MAX 8 crisis).
Other operators that grounded their 737 MAX 9s due to the FAA directive include United Airlines (79), Alaska Airlines (65), Aeromexico (19), Turkish Airlines (5), and Reliance Industries (1 VIP).
