The Family at a Glance

Every 737 MAX shares the same CFM LEAP-1B engines, the same M0.79 long-range cruise, and the same 737 fuselage width. What changes down the family is length: each step up adds fuselage plugs, seats, and weight. More seats and more weight cost a little range, so the family reads as a ladder. The MAX 7 is the short, light, long-legged one; the MAX 10 is the long, heavy, high-capacity one; the MAX 8 and MAX 9 sit in between and do most of the flying.

Read the range column top to bottom and the numbers slide down about 700 nm from the longest to the shortest, a gentle ramp. Read the seat column and the capacity climbs by roughly a third. That asymmetry is the whole story of the family, and it is easiest to see on two simple charts.

Put the two charts next to each other and the trade is obvious. Range slides down a gentle ramp; seats climb a steady staircase. The family is not four different-range airplanes. It is one airplane offered in four sizes, and the range differences are the mild side effect of stretching it.

Range: Closer Than You Think

Range circles make the point vividly. When you draw all four MAX variants from the same airport, they nest closely, one just inside the next. The MAX 7 draws the biggest ring, then the MAX 8, then the MAX 9, with the heavier MAX 10 pulling in tightest. The gap between the outermost and the innermost ring is only about 700 nm, a modest band on a map where every circle already reaches more than 3,000 nm.

Schematic. Real circles are even closer together than shown here, and every ring is dented on the upwind side because a headwind costs distance in that direction.

Two things are worth noticing in that picture. First, the rings are not perfect circles. Great Circle Pro draws them wind-adjusted, so each ring pulls inward on the side where the airplane would fight a headwind on the way out. That dent is identical in shape for all four MAX variants, because they cruise at the same speed and altitude and feel the same wind. Second, notice how little daylight there is between the four lines. The MAX 10 gives up only about 700 nm of reach to the MAX 7, yet it carries roughly 58 more seats. If range were the only thing you cared about, you would barely tell the four apart on a map.

Do They Have the Same ETOPS? Yes.

This is the question that trips people up, so the short answer first: all four 737 MAX variants share the same ETOPS-180 basis. ETOPS is granted against the airplane's systems, its engine reliability, and how far it can fly on one engine, and the whole MAX family shares those systems and those engines. So the certification travels with the family rather than with each length.

In practice that means any of them can operate up to 180 minutes from a suitable diversion airport, which is enough to cover the North Atlantic on common tracks, the Caribbean, and the US mainland to Hawaii. The MAX 7, MAX 8, and MAX 9 are type-certified and in service on that basis. The MAX 10 is planned under the same family basis, but its type certification was still pending as of mid-2026, so its ETOPS-180 is marked with an asterisk in the table above until it enters service. The takeaway for planning: you do not pick a MAX variant for more overwater reach, because they all divert the same distance on one engine. You pick it for how many seats you want over the same water.

Best-Suited Missions, Variant by Variant

If they all reach about the same distance, why does an airline order a mix? Because the right airplane for a route is the one whose seat count matches the demand on that route on the days it matters, while still covering the distance. Here is where each one earns its place.

MAX 7: the long, thin, hot-and-high specialist

The MAX 7 is the shortest and lightest of the four, and it turns that low weight into the family's longest range and its best performance out of demanding airports. On a hot day or at a high-elevation field, thin air robs every airplane of takeoff weight, and the lighter airframe simply has more margin to give. That makes the MAX 7 the natural pick for long, thin routes that need reach but not many seats: a smaller market that still sits 3,000 nm away, or a route out of a high, hot airport like Denver or Mexico City where a heavier variant would have to leave weight on the ground. It is the variant you reach for when the constraint is the airport or the distance, not the demand.

MAX 8: the do-everything workhorse

The MAX 8 is the best-seller for a reason. Its blend of roughly 160 to 178 seats and 3,500 nm of range covers the broadest set of missions without being specialized for any of them: transcontinental flying, dense domestic trunk routes, Caribbean and Mexico beach markets, and short international hops. If you do not have a specific reason to go longer or shorter, the MAX 8 is the default, and it is the airplane most MAX operators build their fleet around. On the range circle it draws the second-largest ring, so it gives up almost nothing in reach versus the MAX 7 while carrying a fuller cabin.

MAX 9: more seats, still plenty of reach

The MAX 9 adds a meaningful chunk of capacity over the MAX 8 while holding 3,300 nm of range, which is still enough for essentially any domestic route and most medium-haul international ones. That makes it the choice for high-demand medium-haul flying: dense transcontinental routes, US West Coast to Hawaii, and busy leisure and business markets where the extra seats pay off and the mission is still comfortably inside the range circle. It is the sweet spot for an airline that wants more seats per departure without stepping down to a route map the airplane cannot cover.

MAX 10: maximum seats, shortest legs

The MAX 10 is the capacity champion of the family, seating up to 230 in a single class, and it trades the most range in the family to get there. Even so, its 3,100 nm still covers the vast majority of domestic and short international flying, so the give-up rarely bites. The MAX 10 shines on dense, slot-constrained, high-demand short and medium routes, where the scarce resource is the takeoff slot or the gate, not the distance, and every extra seat on a departure is worth more than extra miles you were not going to fly anyway. It is a natural fit for the busiest domestic trunk routes and as a step up from older, smaller narrowbodies on high-volume city pairs.

Draw the Comparison Yourself

The charts above are a fixed snapshot. The point of drawing these circles in Great Circle Pro is that you get to change the inputs and watch the picture move. A few things worth trying with the MAX family:

• Stack all four from your hub. Draw a range circle for each MAX variant from the same airport and watch how tightly they nest. It is the fastest way to feel how little the range differs across the family.
• Flip the wind percentile. Switch from the 50th percentile everyday view to the 85th percentile conservative view and every ring pulls in on its headwind side by the same amount, because all four cruise alike. The dent is the wind, not the airplane.
• Slide the payload. Drag the load down and every circle grows, push it up toward a full cabin and they shrink. This is where the variants actually diverge in real operations: the MAX 10 hits its weight limits sooner than the MAX 7, so a heavy load costs it more range.
• Check a hot-and-high field. Draw the MAX 7 and the MAX 10 from a high-elevation airport and compare. The lighter MAX 7 holds more of its reach, which is exactly why airlines assign it there.