The Boeing 737 is an immensely popular family of narrowbody aircraft, with almost 12,000 examples from the entire series having been produced since 1966. Some of these have been more extensively used than others, but which ones come out on top? Looking at fleet data made available by ch-aviation, let’s establish which active examples of each variant have racked up the most flight hours over the years.

Looking at the picture as a whole, we can see from ch-aviation’s data that some 7,876 aircraft from the Boeing 737 are still active today, spread across 459 operators from all over the world. As a quick caveat, it is worth noting that, while ch-aviation’s records for most active examples of the US-built narrowbody twinjet do have figures for aspects such as flight hours and cycles, certain examples are incomplete.

Oldest variants first

Starting with the original Boeing 737-100 variant, no active examples of this version of Boeing’s best-selling twin-engine narrowbody remain in the skies. This is likely due to a combination of the type’s age (having first flown more than 57 years ago in April 1967) and small fleet size (just 30 examples were produced). However, the 737-200 model took to the skies shortly after, and remains active today.

Indeed, of the 991 737-200s that Boeing produced over the years, ch-aviation still lists 43 as being active, with these aircraft being operated by 25 different carriers from across the globe. Of these, the example with the most hours on the clock is a 737-200 registered as C-GOPW that flies for Canadian Air Inuit. At the time of its last measurement, this twinjet had racked up 79,185 hours across 66,209 cycles.

The Boeing 737 Classic series

The two variants discussed thus far formed a sub-series known as the Boeing 737 Original, with the next three models making up the 737 Classic series. The variants in question were the 737-300, 737-400, and 737-500, with the most-used example of the former version being UP-B3729 at Kazakhstan’s SCAT Airlines. This 34.2-year-old twinjet still flies passengers today, and, when last measured, it had:

  • 80,759 flight hours.
  • 45,058 flight cycles.

Related

Which Airlines Still Fly The Boeing 737-300?

Despite its age, the type remains in service at an interesting variety of carriers located all over the world.

Moving onto the 737-400 model, which is the largest model from the Boeing 737 Classic series, 158 of the 486 examples produced still remain active today. Of these, the example with the most hours is OE-IAK, with 79,253 accumulated across 47,515 flight cycles. This particular aircraft is a 737-400SF that flies for ASL Belgium, with this carrier also having the second and third-busiest 737-400s.

Contrastingly, the short-fuselage Boeing 737-500 model has not been produced in any variant other than its standard form, so the most-used example will be a passenger-carrying aircraft. The plane in question bears the registration LY-FLT, and it had racked up 67,916 hours across 41,727 cycles at the time of its last measurement. Today, this aircraft flies for Lithuanian charter operator KlasJet.

The Boeing 737NG series

These three variants were later followed by another four models, which were collectively known as the Boeing 737NG (Next Generation) series. Consisting of the short-fuselage 737-600, mid-sized 737-700, stretched-fuselage 737-800, and even longer 737-900 models, this sub-series alone accounts for almost 7,000 of Boeing’s overall 737 output. Air Algérie’s 7T-VJQ is the most-used 737-600, with:

  • 46,985 flight hours.
  • 31,361 flight cycles.

Related

3 Operators Left: These Are The Last Remaining Users Of The Small But Mighty Boeing 737-600

The Boeing 737-600 resilience in these niche roles suggests it will continue serving these operators for years.

United Airlines Boeing 737-700 Banking

Moving onto the 737-700 variant, this model’s most-used example belongs to United Airlines. Registered as N14704, this 26.2-year-old twinjet had racked up 81,023 hours when last measured (in February 2024) doing so across 29,074 flight cycles. Meanwhile, green-liveried Russian carrier S7 Airlines has the most-used active 737-800 on its books, with RA-73408 having 88,206 hours and 28,744 cycles.

When it comes to the Boeing 737-900, US carrier Alaska Airlines is the place to go for well-used examples of the type. Indeed, all of the world’s top 11 737-900s by flight hours are registered with this particular operator, and N309AS sits at the top of the tree, with 75,074 hours and 30,582 cycles as of February 2024. That being said, N303AS isn’t far behind at all, with 75,034 hours and 30,414 cycles.

The Boeing 737 MAX series

While the next-generation Boeing 737 MAX family officially consists of four different variants, namely the MAX 7, 8, 9, and 10 models, only the middle pair have entered commercial service thus far. When it comes to the MAX 8 version, the most-used example bears the registration OK-SWA. Flying for Czech carrier Smartwings, this particular aircraft has racked up 16,967 hours across 4,690 cycles.

Smartwings Boeing 737 MAX 8 Landing In Malta

Photo: InsectWorld | Shutterstock

Meanwhile, Panamanian flag carrier Copa Airlines operates all of the world’s 10 most-used Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft by flight hours, with the top scorer in this regard being HP-9901CMP. While this particular aircraft is yet to reach six years in the skies, it has already racked up an impressive 16,512 flight hours across 3,800 cycles. Needless to say, this number will continue to grow for quite some time.

Have you flown on any of these well-used 737s? What other aircraft would you like us to examine in terms of flight hours? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *