Airlines which fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 aeroplane

Roughly two-thirds of the 737 Max 8 aircraft in the world have been pulled from use by airlines and aviation regulators after the model crashed twice in just five months.

An estimated 6,000 of the 8,600 flights that use the plane in a typical week of travel were affected, according to an analysis based on data from Flightradar24, a flight tracking service.

But three airlines in the United States and Canada — American, Southwest and Air Canada — have stuck by the Max 8, leaving them as the only carriers still flying large numbers of the jets.

SAFE

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared the plane safe.

Concerns about the model first surfaced after a Lion Air flight crashed near Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people aboard.

On Sunday, a second plane crashed outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 people.

It is unclear why the second plane crashed or whether the causes of the crashes are related.

On Tuesday, the European Union joined China, Indonesia and more than a half-dozen other countries barring the planes from their airspace as the investigation continues.

OUT OF SERVICE

Nearly 40 airlines have announced they are taking the aircraft out of service.

The 737 class is a workhorse for airlines worldwide, and the single-aisle 737 Max has been Boeing’s best-selling plane ever.

More than 340 of the Max 8 planes are registered, and many more are on order.

But the model accounts for a small fraction of planes in the air at any given time, according to Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24.

The estimate of affected flights is based on data showing where the plane flew during a week of travel beginning February 25.

GROUNDED FLIGHTS

The New York Times counted flights as grounded if they departed or arrived in a country that has barred the Max 8, or if they were flown by an airline that has grounded the jet.

The most popular routes were in North America and China.

Investigators recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder for the Ethiopian Airlines crash Monday.

Some circumstances of the crash, such as unusual altitude changes after take-off, were similar to those in the Lion Air flight, but the cause is still not known.

Five months later, the causes of that crash are still under investigation.

But the tragedy revealed that Boeing and the FAA determined that pilots did not need to be informed of changes to the Max 8’s flight control system, which may have contributed to the crash.

The following is the status of Boeing 737 Max 8 Flights by airline:

Note: Jet Airways has not flown Max 8 jets since the beginning of March because of financial distress. Fiji Airways has suspended all Max 8 operations to and from Australia to comply with a directive of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Sources: The airlines, Flightradar24, OpenFlights Airports Database, aviation authorities.