Hello All,
Despite Boeing’s production setbacks, the in-service passenger (non-VIP or government) fleet of 737 MAXes surpassed the E-Jet E1 fleet in May 2024: 1,499 vs. 1,488 per planespotters.net data.
This post compares both fleets at the macro level.
A tale of two E-Jet markets
The table below shows the regional breakdown of the E-Jet fleet split into two groups: the “regional jet” variants (E170 and E175) and the “small single-aisle” variants (E190 and E195):
RegionE170/E175E190/E195TotalAfrica144Asia Pacific31013Europe51520Latin America<189Middle East<1<1<1North America51354Total5941100Share of E-Jet in-service passenger fleet in %
One can roughly the market into two parts: most (86%) E170/E175s are in North America, while most E190/E195s (92%) are outside North America. The unbalanced regional shares will further exacerbate for two reasons:
US carriers are the only ones taking delivery of E175s, while airlines in other countries tend to retire them.
North American carriers, notably JetBlue and Aeromexico Connect, are retiring their E190s, which are, in turn, starting second lives with operators outside North America.
The fleet group breakdown is North America E170/E175s (51%), non-North America E190/E195s (38%), non-North America E170/E175s (8%), North America E190/E195 (3%). The variant breakdown is E175 (49%), E190 (30%), E195 (11%), E170 (10%). Five airlines operate 50 or more units: Skywest (246), Republic (205), Envoy Air (159), Mesa (70), and Tianjin Airlines (58).
There are 64 E-jet operators, and the overall fleet HHI is 7.1%: it is moderately concentrated.
An Americas bias
The below table shows the regional breakdown of in-service 737 MAXes:
RegionShare (%)Africa2Asia Pacific17Europe23Latin America11Middle East6North America42Total100Share of in-service 737 MAXes
Airlines in the Americas operate 53% of all 737 MAXes, while their share of overall traffic is slightly below 30% per IATA data. Given the large orderbooks placed by US airlines things will stay skewed. 737 MAXes are less popular in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, regions that tend to favor Airbus single-aisle.
The 737-8 represents 85% of all in-service MAXes, and the 737-9 15%. The airlines operating 50 or more units are Southwest (229), United (164), Ryanair (98), Alaska (71), American, Flydubai (58), and Aeromexico (53).
There are 79 737 MAX operators, and the global fleet’s HHI is 5.3%. While the HHI index indicates more diversification than the E-jet fleet, it is far less diversified than the A320neo fleet (an HHI of 2.1%).
Looking at the future
As airlines retire their older E-jet airframes (mostly to A220s or E-Jet E2s), the Brazilian fleet will skew more toward the E175. It is hard to say whether E175 deliveries will be enough to compensate for E-jet retirements, but the E-jet fleet won’t materially grow at best.
The 737 MAX fleet will continue growing, with the pace depending on how quickly Boeing resolves its production issues. It will be a while until it crosses another fleet milestone, even accounting for retirements: there are around 5,700 737 NGs and 6,300 A320ceos in passenger service.