Long-haul narrowbody flights have long been controversial. Whether fair or not, many argue that they're less comfortable than widebodies, although new technology plays a vital role in making cabins feel more spacious.

Long-haul by single-aisles is an intriguing concept economically. While a narrowbody has a far lower trip cost than a widebody, they have a higher seat-mile cost, higher cost per seat, and fewer seats to fill. The balance depends partly on the degree of premium passengers or lack of competition and the market's ability to pay higher fares to offset higher seat costs.

3,500 miles (5,700km) plus

The Northern Hemisphere's aviation winter 2022 season runs from October 30th until March 25th. In this period, airlines adopt winter schedules. As of September 12th, the world's longest nonstop B737 MAX 8 routes this winter are summarized in the table below.

According to Boeing, the MAX 8's theoretical range is 4,085 miles (6,574km), although the real-world limit will be less. As such, some of the following will surely have payload restrictions.

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The world's longest MAX 8 routes

Note: things might change, TUI Fly Nordic's various long routes are scheduled charter flights and often route triangularly (e.g., Helsinki-Lanzarote-Sal-Helsinki; where they're not nonstop = not n/s), and where block time varies, the most frequent time is stated.

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New longest route

Starting on December 6th, Batik Air Malaysia's new nonstop service between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne will be the world's longest MAX 8 route. That's the case by distance and block time, at least inbound to Malaysia. It might be overtaken at some point.

Supplementing the airline's existing 1x daily Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar Bali-Melbourne service, 1x daily nonstop will run through the peak Southern Hemisphere summer season. It'll use its 162-seat MAX 8s, with 12 seats in business and 150 in economy. This will help to reduce weight, increase fuel consumption and range, and to target premium demand – the latter will, as mentioned at the start, will be crucial to performance.

My longest MAX 8 route is the 1,736 miles (2,794km) between London Stansted and Lanzarote, less than half as long as those in the table above. What's yours? Let us know in the comments.