United Airlines does not plan to deploy its first Boeing 737 Max aircraft on transatlantic routes, but acknowledges that using the newest Boeing narrowbody in place of its 757s stands as a possibility down the road.

“I don't think we have any rush to move into flying 737s across the Atlantic,” United COO Andrew Nocella told analysts on a recent earnings call. “It's something we're going to look at for the medium- to long term, but it's not something that we plan to do in the short term at all.”

United has confirmed that it would take its first twelve 737 Max jets in 2019. It converted the order for the aircraft, all Max 9s, from a batch of sixty-five 737NG deferrals announced last year. It converted four others to 737-800s, delivering this year. United also holds a separate order for 100 Max 10s, scheduled for first delivery in 2020. 

United presently holds no commitments for Max 8s—the first version of the aircraft flying transatlantic routes—but that also could change. “We might one day order 8s,” Nocella said.

United has flown 757s across the Atlantic for years. Nocella noted that the carrier operates plenty of 757s in its newest configuration—featuring its Polaris-branded business class interior—in its domestic network to deploy over the Atlantic if market conditions warrant.

The range of the 737 Max limits transatlantic nonstop flights to between the U.S. East Coast and far western and northwestern Europe. For a carrier with established U.S. domestic feeds like United, dropping the Max in between the regions could make sense. 

Meanwhile, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary cited range as a prime reason that Ryanair doesn’t see the Max as a fit for its notional transatlantic plans.

“The Max aircraft won't extend our range of operations,” O’Leary said. “We have no interest in flying the Max, for example, across the Atlantic. Again, because of its range limitations, we can do Dublin to kind of Boston. But...unless you’re going to serve both the East Coast and the West Coast with a long-haul, low-cost carrier, we don't think you have the scale or the ability to penetrate that market properly.”

Ryanair holds commitments for 210 Max-family jets, including 100 options, and it plans to fly them all.

“Unless there was some kind of very significant adverse event, I expect us to take all of those, [and] be confirming all of those options as they fall due two years prior to delivery,” O’Leary said. Ryanair expects to receive its first Max in 2019.

Norwegian in mid-July became the first operator to launch transatlantic services using Max aircraft, with flights between three secondary airports on the U.S. East Coast—New York’s Stewart International, Providence’s T.F. Green, and Hartford’s Bradley International—and Edinburgh, Scotland. It has since added service to Cork, Dublin, Shannon, Ireland; Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Bergen, Norway. 

The carrier operates 189-seat Max 8s on the routes, and holds commitments for 110 total Max-family aircraft. It expects delivery of six this year.