Aircraft
Boeing 737 Max On Course To Meet Reliability Goals
Teething pains remain isolated to new systems
Xiamen Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 737 Max 8 on May 22. (Photo: Boeing)
Xiamen Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 737 Max 8 on May 22. (Photo: Boeing)

A year after its entry into service with launch operator Malindo Air of Malaysia, the Boeing 737 Max has registered a fleet-wide 99.4 percent dispatch reliability rate, a performance Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth pronounced as higher than “any new airplane entering service.” Speaking with reporters two days after Boeing celebrated the anniversary along with delivery of Xiamen Airlines’s first of 20 Max 8s on order (the airline also holds an order for 10 Max 10s), Tinseth acknowledged changes from the 737NG produced certain “teething problems,” but nothing particularly unexpected over its first 12 months in service.