United brings the 737 MAX 9 online

Looking to fly on United’s newest aircraft type? Head to Houston on June 7th to be part of the first day of 737 MAX 9 operations. The company announced the initial routes and dates for the aircraft today, with a 7:35am departure to Orlando slated to be the first flight of the type for United’s commercial service. Other destinations in the first tranche of flights include Austin, Anchorage and Fort Lauderdale.

Three weeks later the company expects to have sufficient aircraft inducted to add additional routes with the type. Included in that plan is service from Los Angeles to Honolulu, bringing the MAX9 into ETOPS service for the company. Sacramento and Tampa will also see service added in the second round of flights.

The addition of the MAX 9 furthers our efforts to become a more efficient and productive airline. It has better fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs and does all of this while maximizing customer comfort. – United CFO Andrew Levy.

The company expects to take deliver of 10 MAX aircraft this year and will announce further routes as they are set.

The Boeing 737 MAX 9 features 179 seats including 20 United First seats in a 2-2 configuration, 48 in Economy Plus in a 3-3 configuration with 34 inches of pitch, and 111 United Economy seats in a 3-3 configuration with at least 30 inches of pitch. That layout is slightly more generous with Economy Plus than recent new 739 deliveries (20/42/117). Much like the other new 737s these are being delivered without in-seat entertainment screens. They do offer streaming media options with movies and television shows as well as outlets to keep personal devices charged. Inflight connectivity from Viasat will deliver a high speed internet wifi product on board.

In addition to 61 737 MAX 9 aircraft on order United Airlines also has 100 737 MAX 10 frames pending, with delivery slated to begin in 2020.