These Airlines Rely Most Heavily on the Boeing 737 Max

After two Boeing 737 Max airplanes tragically crashed in short succession in October 2018 and March 2019, Boeing grounded the entire global fleet of the model. While the fly ban is entering its seventh month, pilots of the U.S. airline Southwest are now suing Boeing over more than $100 million in lost wages.

The lawsuit alleges that Boeing "abandoned sound design and engineering practices, withheld safety critical information from regulators and deliberately misled its customers, pilots and the public about the true scope of design changes to the 737 Max". Flaws in one of the airplanes maneuvering systems are under scrutiny after the crashes. A tweak in the system was made to allow Boeing certain design changes to the new 737 Max model without a complete design overhaul of the 737 plane. Since both crashed airlines had not purchased optional safety features that could have helped pilots identify the flight path problems properly, the system's malfunction led the planes to nosedive and finally crash.

Boeing data reveals that Southwest is in fact the airline most heavily affected by the groundings. The company had most 737 Max planes in operation, followed by American Airlines. Southwest is also the airline that has most pending orders for the model. Indonesian airline Lion Air, which was the company operating the first of the two crashed airplanes, had also ordered a substantial number of planes.

China was one of the first countries in the world to prohibit the airplane from taking off after the second incident involving the model in Ethiopia. Airlines China Southern, China Eastern and Air China also have purchased several jets each.