Boeing 737 MAX 8

The 737 MAX 8 is the first version of the re-engined 737 to enter service, in 2017. The whole MAX fleet was grounded worldwide from March 2019 and cleared again by the FAA in November 2020. It flew again in the US in December 2020, which is why the data shows almost no MAX 8 flying in 2020.

A wide-body passenger jet facing the camera on a runway at sunset — Illustrative photo. It doesn't identify an aircraft type or airline. Photo: Senohrabek, DepositPhotos Standard licence.

800gallons per airborne hour
96.8seat-miles per gallon
172seats per flight on average
1,843gallons burned per flight

What the figures say

Boeing 737 MAX 8 ranks 4 of 25 types for seat-miles per gallon in 2025, at 96.8. Over 1,000 miles, one seat on this type accounts for about 101 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned.

The older Boeing 737-800 flew 79.1 seat-miles per gallon in 2025. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is 22% ahead, with 172 seats per flight against 170. Its fuel burn per airborne hour is 800 gallons against 951.

US airlines burned 1,293 million gallons on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in 2025, 6.9% of the fuel burned on all scheduled passenger flying, over 1,616 thousand airborne hours and 702 thousand departures. The average flight spent 2.3 hours in the air and burned 1,843 gallons.

Since 2021, when it was first flown in volume, the type's figure has fallen from 99.8 to 96.8 seat-miles per gallon (3.1%).

Airlines get different results from the same aircraft. Alaska Airlines flew 97.5 seat-miles per gallon on it and American Airlines 94.1, a gap of 3.6%. It isn't the seat count: Alaska Airlines put 160 seats on each flight and American Airlines 172. Flight length differs too, at 3.2 hours in the air per flight for Alaska Airlines and 2.7 for American Airlines, and longer flights burn less fuel per seat-mile, which helps Alaska Airlines. What's left comes from taxi and holding time, weight, engines, how each airline operates and how it allocates fuel to types when it reports, and the filings can't separate those.

What one seat costs the climate

CO2 for one seat on a Boeing 737 MAX 8, from the fuel burned, at the 2025 average.

50 kgover 500 miles
101 kgover 1,000 miles
202 kgover 2,000 miles

Boeing 737 MAX 8 seat-miles per gallon across all US airlines flying it, by year, from the first year it was flown in volume.

Who flies it, and how they burn

Boeing 737 MAX 8 by airline, 2025

Airline	Fuel (million gallons)	Gallons per airborne hour	Seats per flight	Hours per flight	Seat-miles per gallon
Southwest Airlines	717	795	175	2.0	97.4
United Airlines	344	791	166	3.0	97.1
American Airlines	212	840	172	2.7	94.1
Alaska Airlines	20	765	160	3.2	97.5

Seats on the Boeing 737 MAX 8, airline by airline

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 has 159 seats at Alaska Airlines and 190 at Allegiant Air, 19% more on the same model. The seat count is what each airline reports for its own aircraft in 2025, for airlines with 10 or more.

Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleets, 2025

Airline	Aircraft	Average seats	Fewest to most	Average age
Alaska Airlines	14	159.0	159	0.4
United Airlines	123	163.7	162 to 175	2.0
American Airlines	89	172.0	172	3.3
Southwest Airlines	300	175.0	175	2.7
Allegiant Air	16	190.0	190	0.3

See every airline's fleet on the fleets page.

Similar-sized aircraft

These types carry within about 25 seats of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, so they compete for the same routes.

Airbus A320neo100.6 seat-miles per gallon, 780 gallons per hour Boeing 737 MAX 9100.3 seat-miles per gallon, 828 gallons per hour Boeing 737-900ER81.4 seat-miles per gallon, 992 gallons per hour Boeing 737-80079.1 seat-miles per gallon, 951 gallons per hour

How to read this. Fuel is what airlines issued to the type in 2025, as filed with the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, counted only for the hours spent on scheduled passenger flights and divided by the hours in the air. It includes fuel burned taxiing and holding, so it's higher than the cruise figure in a manual. CO2 is 9.75 kg per gallon of jet fuel.

More from Boeing

Browse the Boeing manufacturer hub and its other profiled types:

Nearby in fuel efficiency

Types on either side of this one in the seat-miles per gallon table, regardless of size:

Boeing 737-900ER81.4 seat-miles per gallon Boeing 787-1086.2 seat-miles per gallon Boeing 737 MAX 9100.3 seat-miles per gallon Airbus A320neo100.6 seat-miles per gallon

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Schedule T-2 fuel and airborne hours; US EPA jet-fuel CO2 factor. See the methodology and flight-hour definitions.

Back to all aircraft types, or see how the airlines compare on the airline pages.