In this story, we will be reviewing some of the rarest flight plans in the world flown by the global fleet of Boeing 737 MAX jets. Interestingly, the rare flights in this selection are all flown by either Smartwings Poland (3Z) or TUIfly Nordic (6B). This sampling includes a range of destinations across the European continent, with each location sharing one thing in common: each is scheduled only once this year.
Data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, confirms that in 2025, each of the itineraries on the list below is only scheduled for a single occasion of service this year. The sampling below varies in distance from just under 400 kilometers to nearly 4,000. Another commonality between all ten of these rare flights is that they are served by the same variant of the 737 MAX family, the MAX 8.
The 737 MAX has had a troubled time in the few years that it has been in active commercial service so far, yet it remains the most popular plane that Boeing makes. The latest iteration of the 737 family inherits the legacy of the world’s best-selling jetliner. Now, let’s go down the list from Sweden to Greece, Poland, and Spain to examine some of these rare flights.
Stockholm to Växjö
1 scheduled flight
Served by TUIfly Nordic, this short hop is a domestic leg that serves two Swedish airports. Departing Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN), the MAX 8 jet barely stretches its legs before touchdown at Växjö Småland Airport (VXO). The small field at VXO handles just a few aircraft movements per day, with the average total for the year amounting to a few thousand.
Southwest of Stockholm, the stop at VXO splits the distance to Copenhagen in Denmark. The airfield was originally an airbase in the post-World War II era. It has had commercial service to Stockholm since it was established, but that was halted during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Today, it hosts low-cost carriers (LCCs) and charter flights primarily.
Stockholm To Oslo
1 scheduled flight
Another TUIfly route, this time between two of the great capital cities of Scandinavia. The distance is a trifle for the state-of-the-art 737 MAX 8. Oslo Airport (OSL) greets nearly 30 million travelers a year and oversees hundreds of thousands of takeoffs and landings. The field is constantly busy with everything from executive jets to long-haul widebodies and even Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) C-130 Hercules airlifters.
The overland route takes just about an hour to complete. Crossing the mountainous border it’s a far more convenient way to make the short journey than by car, especially if the weather is uncooperative. The two hubs represent the busiest and largest airports in their respective nations. All the same, this route is only expected to be flown on a single occasion in 2025.
Stockholm To Halmstad
1 scheduled flight
Next up is another brisk TUIfly domestic mission that departs Stockholm and sets down in Halmstad City Airport (HAD) in Sweden. This itinerary is another hour or so long flight that barely gets the CFM LEAP engines warmed up before they spool back down again. Situated on the Southwest Coast of Sweden, this small city along the shore of the North Sea is home to fewer than 100,000 people.
The operations at Halmstad make Växjö Småland look much busier, with about 25% less traffic over the span of a year at the tiny airfield. Despite that, the passenger traffic still exceeds the local population on average. The main runway is flanked by a grass strip as well. Interestingly, the portfolio of destinations may be sparse, but they are quite varied, including direct flights as far as Tokyo and Bangkok.
Kraków To Tirana
1 scheduled flight
Now we arrive at our first flight plan under the purview of Smartwings Poland. Departing Kraków Airport (KRK) in Poland, the 737 MAX 8 only has a short time to spend at cruising altitude before it lands in Tirana International Airport (TIA), Albania. Kraków is the second-largest airport in Poland, and Tirana is the biggest in Albania. The solitary flight scheduled for 2025 will briefly connect the two major hubs.
Kraków slowly built up its operations from the early 1970s to the point where it is today, but Tirana was very different. The Albanian air travel industry never took off under the pressure of world wars and communist isolationism. When the “Iron Curtain” finally fell, it exploded with a dramatic rise. One interesting event in Tirana Airport’s history before it developed was being one of the first destinations served by CAAC, or the People’s Aviation Company of China.
Thessaloniki To Warsaw
1 scheduled flight
Another Smartwings Poland route, this air bridge connects Poland’s busiest airport with one of the top hubs in Greece. Departing from Thessaloniki International Airport (SKG), the MAX 8 enjoys a brief stride at cruising level before arriving at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW). Warsaw sees over 20 million flyers pass through its doors every year, while Thessaloniki also hosts several million travelers.
SKG is ranked the third largest after Athens International Airport (ATH) and Heraklion International Airport (HER). The airport traces its roots back to the First World War, when it was set up by military forces and went on to become one of the first civilian flying locations in the country. On the other hand, WAW was essentially constructed to relieve traffic from nearby fields and hosted its first international flights during the inter-war period.
Malaga Coast To Warsaw
1 scheduled flight
Serving the Southern Coastal Spanish city from which it derives its name, Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport (APG) is ranked among the top five busiest airports in Spain. The runway is long enough for international widebodies from overseas or 737 MAX 8s taking off with heavy fuel loads for longer legs. The airport welcomes tens of millions of flyers every year as they arrive seeking the beaches, cuisine, and historic culture of the beautiful area.
The Smartwings Poland flight lands in Warsaw on this flight plan, which is one of the ten largest cities in the European Union. The city boasts a thriving modern-day economy as well as a historic downtown that was rebuilt in the wake of WWII with painstaking effort to recreate its history and culture. The old town district is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site today.
Antalya To Billund
1 scheduled flight
TUIfly Nordic will only fly one time in 2025 from Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey to Billund Airport (BLL) in Denmark. Antalya is a major summer destination for European tourists, and the airport greets nearly 40 million flyers a year. Billund hosts only a fraction of that number but still sees a few million travelers pass through its doors every year and ranks among the top ten Nordic airports, as well as handling a large share of air cargo for the region.
Ground was broken in Antalya in the late 1990s to accommodate the high summer surge of tourism, and it steadily grew to become the hub that it is today. Interestingly, Billund was built up from a small private airstrip that the LEGO company funded at first (with limited LEGO architecture sets even made). Since the 1960s, Billund has steadily become a greater pillar of the Danish and Scandinavian aviation industry as a whole.
Faro To Warsaw
1 scheduled flight
The final Smartwings Poland itinerary on this list departs from Faro Airport (FAO) in Portugal and terminates in Warsaw once again. The flight gives the 737 MAX a bit more room to stretch out, but is still well shy of the plane’s maximum range. That leaves plenty of extra payload for full seats or extra belly cargo on the single annual flight that is scheduled for 2025 between the two cities.
Faro ranks in the top three airports of Portugal, with Lisbon (LIS) and Porto (OPO). The hub serves roughly 10 million travelers a year. The nearly 2,500-meter runway can handle widebodies arriving from transoceanic and intercontinental destinations. Some of the most frequent destinations on the boards in Faro include London Gatwick (LGW) and other airports in the United Kingdom.
Accerife To Stavanger
1 scheduled flight
TUIfly scheduled a single flight plan to link the Canary Islands with Norway’s oldest airport. The flight can take about 4 hours and 30 minutes, depending on the weather, from Aeropuerto de César Manrique-Lanzarote (ACE) to Stavanger Airport (SVG), also known as Sola. Accerife welcomes more than seven million travelers every year and even has a museum in one of the terminals that documents the Canary Islands’ aviation heritage.
Today, Sola is one of the top three busiest hubs of Norway and the top ten Scandinavian airports, as well as serving as a base for the Norwegian Air Force. Sola has steadily grown since the end of WWII and now hosts over four million flyers a year from domestic and international flights.
Accerife To Halmstad
1 scheduled flight
Once again connecting the Canary Islands to Scandinavia, the final entry on this list departs Accerife and lands in Halmstad on the sleepy coast of Sweden. The 737 MAX 8 gets a decent workout on this route, pushing the plane to about half of its designed range limit.
aeroLOPA says the TUIfly Boeing jet ferries 189 passengers at full capacity. Just a few hours in the air is enough for the latest and greatest 737 iteration to deliver those souls across the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of the North Sea.
