United Airlines is sitting on hundreds of lie-flat seats bought for the Boeing 737 MAX 10 while that jet still lacks a type certificate, View from the Wing reported on 31 August 2026, citing comments chief executive Scott Kirby made to CNBC. Air Journal published a matching account on 1 September 2026. Kirby said United has “a bunch of lie-flat seats” it does not know what to do with because they do not fit on other aircraft in the fleet.
United became the MAX 10 launch customer in 2017, converting orders for 100 smaller MAX aircraft, according to View from the Wing. Deliveries had been expected to begin in 2020. In 2018, then-president Kirby said the airline was testing lie-flat seats for some of the jets, with an eye on replacing premium Boeing 757s on Newark–Los Angeles and Newark–San Francisco and expanding lie-flat flying on San Francisco–Washington Dulles. The published plan grew into a dedicated subfleet with about 22 direct-aisle lie-flat seats in a 1-1 layout. At one point as many as 50 MAX 10s were expected to receive that cabin. Those are the figures those two write-ups give; a final certified layout for United’s MAX 10s has not been announced.
The 737 MAX 10 is the longest member of the 737 MAX family, with two underwing LEAP engines and split-scimitar winglets. It is not an Airbus A321neo. United has already shifted part of its premium transcontinental plan onto A321neo aircraft in a Coastliner subfleet. View from the Wing describes that cabin as 20 Polaris suites, 12 Premium Plus seats and 129 economy seats, with 40 of 50 Coastliners supposed to be flying by early 2028. Kirby told CNBC the stored MAX 10 seats do not fit those Airbus frames. Air Journal adds that seat tracks, floor beams, electrical feeds and evacuation geometry are type-specific, so a certified seat product is not automatically a certified installation.
Boeing completed its last planned MAX 10 certification flight on 28 July after 976 flights and more than 2,060 flight hours, both reports say, plus about 1,040 hours of ground testing in the Air Journal account. Boeing still aims for certification in 2026 and first customer deliveries in 2027. That is a manufacturer target, not an FAA decision already issued. View from the Wing notes WestJet, not United, is expected to take the first MAX 10s. United still holds 167 MAX 10s on firm order and has scheduled up to about 20 in 2027, according to that piece. Air Journal says United now expects its first MAX 10s in summer 2027. This article does not choose between those two delivery phrasings beyond reporting both.
View from the Wing, citing AirInsight and Enilria, reports that the stored seats may be Elevate Altitude units and that MAX 10 floor beams might not support the planned premium installation. Those are attributed engineering claims, not confirmed FAA findings, and they are not treated here as settled fact. Possible fixes named in that reporting include revised fittings, spreader plates, a different seat angle, or floor reinforcement; each would need its own engineering and certification work. Flydubai and Copa already fly lie-flat products on smaller MAX variants, the same article notes, which does not by itself prove United’s 1-1 MAX 10 layout will be approved.
Any illustration with this story is an original scene of a Boeing 737 MAX in United colours, not a copy of a stored-seat warehouse photo, and it is not a registration. It should not be read as proof that a lie-flat MAX 10 is already in passenger service.
Travellers looking at United transcontinental cabins should treat the MAX 10 lie-flat plan as unfinished until the FAA certifies both the aircraft and the installation. If a later filing drops the 1-1 cabin or moves those seats onto another type, that would be a new equipment decision, not a contradiction of the 31 August–1 September accounts.
Sources: View from the Wing, 31 August 2026; Air Journal, 1 September 2026; CNBC comments as quoted in both
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