Don't like the idea of flying intercontinental on the A321? Then get 8 hours on a 737 MAX

There is a lot of talk these days about the Long-haul flights operated with narrow-body aircraft, the so-called 'narrowbodies'. Merit, or fault (depending on your point of view), of the emergence in the fleets of many airlines of the Airbus A321neo and A321LR, allowing nonstop routes of up to 6-7 hours (the neo) and up to 9 hours (the -LRs) to be covered.

With the entry into service of the XLR (Extra Long Range) model of the European-built bireactor, this debate will only heat up further as the XLR version of the A321 will be able to bypass the 10-hour nonstop flight time.

In Europe alone, there are as many as Four companies using the -LR to bypass the Atlantic: the Portuguese TAP, the Irish Aer Lingus, the Scandinavian SAS e the French La Compagnie. ITA Airways, with its neo (non -LR) starting next spring. Will serve from Rome to the Middle East and west-central Africa On routes of about 6 hours duration.

Of course, there is a big difference between getting 9 hours between Paris or Milan and New York on La Compagnie's A321LR, in a booth with an all-Business configuration, and cross the Atlantic in a regular Economy cabin. Or, again, fly, as Wizz Air does between Milan and Riyadh (6 hours), in a low-cost cabin with your knees in your mouth and in which there is not even a power outlet to charge your cell phone.

But the A321 is not the only narrow-body aircraft used by airlines on long-haul flights (that is, on flights whose duration exceeds 6 hours). There is also the Boeing 737 MAX 8 which, if you will, represents an even greater challenge for passengers in terms of comfort, given that its cabin is twelve centimeters narrower than that of the A321: 3.51 meters versus 3.63 meters.

These days on social media the Dominican company Arajet, which launched with its Boeing 737 MAX 8 two nonstop connections (Santo Domingo-Buenos Aires and Santo Domingo-Santiago de Chile), which are Between seven and a half and eight hours, as for travel time. The Latin American carrier's MAX configuration sees eight seats in Premium Economy and 177 in Economy, for a total of 185. That is four less than the maximum number of seats that can be placed on that type of aircraft, with space between the rows of seats easy to guess as extremely tight.

 

On the other hand, holding the 'theoretical' record for the longest nonstop flight with a 737 is another low-cost carrier: the Brazilian Gol, which every day connects Brasilia and Orlando using the MAX 8. The 'Official' flight time is 8 hours and 20 minutes although, looking at the data provided by flightradar24, it actually ranges between 7 hours 20 minutes and 7 hours 40 minutes. In the top 5 there are also the Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne operated by Batik Air (officially 7 hours 55 minutes), which on the way back makes a stopover in Bali, and the Buenos Aires-Punta Cana by Aerolineas Argentinas, whose schedule is 7 hours and 50 minutes.

 

In Italy, to date, there is nothing so 'extreme'. The only Italian airline using Boeing 737 MAXs for non-European flights is Neos, who flies that aircraft on the Red Sea (4 hours) and to Dakar and Cape Verde, with travel times just above 6 hours.