MAX connector airports
 

According to LarryJ the first airports with training for the MAX for United aircraft are:

IAH
DEN

Think is useful to know for those of us who want to avoid MAX flights. I will seek connecting flights not through those two airports, especially with aircraft swaps being more likely where crew are trained for MAX flights

I believe you are misinformed.

UA has its flight training centers at DEN and IAH. Each flight training center has flight simulators. Just because the pilots go there for training, it does not mean DEN and IAH will be the MAX bases.

Also - despite the defects, both crashes revealed that human factors have contributed.

Rough start to this thread. Here’s what LarryJ was inferring based on an internal communication with the pilots.

The initial MAX flying will be operated by B737 pilots based in DEN & IAH with flights originating from each city.

Sim training is only conducted in DEN (not IAH) and as the required FAA training is performed the MAX flying will most likely increase from the other bases as operationally feasible.

Hope this helps clarify.

IAH hasn’t had flight training for a few years and the sims were moved to the consolidated former UA facility (DENTK) near the site of the old Stapleton airport.

Also - fears about aircraft substitutions are unfounded. United has said specifically they will not use Max aircraft as substitutes for non-Max.

That said ... I’d have no hesitation flying on one now, aside from the same Covid concerns I have across the board.

Is the plan to operate the MAX in and out of IAH and DEN only just an initial rollout? I realize the crews will be only based there for awhile but I ask because I know an IAD based crew person who routinely (before COVID obviously) flew many flights in the middle of trips which never touched IAD. I can see this interim plan for flights as UA might want the aircraft to never be more than one scheduled flight away from a base in case some special maintenance issue must be addressed that's different from the 737 fleet as a whole.

From a UA captain
 

Pilots in those two bases start training in January. The MAX flights will be assigned to trips originating in those bases because that's where the qualified pilots will be.

The rest of us return to training on a 9-month cycle so, presumably, by the end of next September, we will all be qualified.

The MAX will still be a small percentage of the 737 fleet for quite some time.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, though: a trip might originate in IAH or DEN but pass through any other hub on the way. So, IAH-AUS-SFO-LAX-IAH is one possible trip.

And since anyone who is qualified to fly the MAX is also qualified to fly the NG, if a MAX were to go out of service, they could sub an NG in its place and continue the trip.

I think the premise of this thread is flawed -- I don't think you can say "if I don'y fly through DEN or IAH, I won't be routed on a MAX." And even if that might be true in Q1, it certainly wouldn't be true in Q4.

That's true, but the crews frequently change airplanes after each leg. An IAH crew might fly IAH-LAX in a MAX then swap to an NG to fly LAX-SFO-EUG while the MAX is flown to DEN or IAH by another DEN or IAH crew.

Avoiding connections in DEN or IAH, in the early months of 2021, will likely result in a low probability of flying on a MAX. As we progress through the year, the effectiveness of that strategy will likely decrease.