Originally Posted by
Knotcher
What you are missing is that the difficulty in doing an upgrade itself was not the problem, it was the training costs the airlines would incur due to having two different cockpits (much like the 764). It would have caused problems for the customers. Boeing does not want to willy nilly change things that will just create more problems for the customer, because Boeing knows that they will balk (as SWA did). They can't make changes in a vacuum.
That's right, except it isn't Boeing making the decisions.
Boeing and Airbus are in regular contact with their customs, airlines and leasing companies. They discuss possible designs and what the airline might be interested in buying. The MAX line was built because that's what Boeing's customers wanted at the time. They wanted a more efficient airplane, sooner, at lower cost, and with training commonality, which a clean-sheet design wouldn't provide. If Boeing didn't deliver, most of those MAX orders would have gone to Airbus.