The United States is set to announce on Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration has certified Boeing's 737 MAX 10, according to sources briefed on the plans who spoke to Reuters. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to make the announcement during a visit to Washington State, appearing at Boeing's factory in Everett to tout the FAA certification of the long-delayed larger variant of Boeing's best-selling airplane.
The MAX 10 is the largest member of the 737 MAX family and can carry more passengers than its siblings, and airlines have been counting on it. Carriers have ordered nearly 1,500 of the jets, and the model accounts for about 30 percent of Boeing's outstanding 737 backlog. Boeing has already built a handful of MAX 10s awaiting delivery, and the bigger plane is crucial to several airlines' growth plans — major customers include United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Ryanair, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.
The final regulatory step fell into place on Friday, when the FAA conducted a review by the Type Certification Board, which is made up of FAA management team members, in a final step before the agency decides on certification. Boeing referred questions about the announcement to the FAA, which did not immediately comment. The agency has stated its position on the pace of the process plainly:
"Safety dictates the certification timeline."
The approval closes one of the longest certification sagas in Boeing's history. Before the delays, Boeing had initially planned to start delivering the MAX 10 in 2020 — six years ago. The smaller 737 MAX 7 received its long-awaited FAA approval only in August, after the agency reviewed that plane for more than eight years, and a problem with the anti-ice system on 737 MAX engines that arose in 2023 further delayed certification of both the MAX 7 and the MAX 10.
The MAX 10's road to this point ran through the toughest scrutiny the FAA has ever applied to the planemaker. Boeing has faced a more stringent certification process since two fatal MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, as well as scrutiny of the company's production and quality systems after a January 2024 mid-air cabin panel blowout on a nearly new Alaska Airlines MAX 9. As recently as late September, a glitch with the latest update of the 737 MAX's navigation software threatened to delay certification further when Boeing disclosed it — but the FAA determined it did not pose a safety concern and did not require Boeing to fix the problem as a condition of certifying the plane.
The announcement also lands in the middle of the administration's push to fix how America certifies airplanes. Last week, Duffy met with the chief executives of major aerospace companies — including Boeing, RTX, Honeywell, GE Aerospace, Textron and Gulfstream — in Georgia to discuss how the certification process can be improved. Boeing, for its part, in July opened a new line at the Everett plant to expand 737 MAX production, which it also assembles in Renton.
Certification of the MAX 10 does not finish Boeing's catch-up work. The company is still working on certifying the 777-9, its largest jetliner in production, which is already six years behind schedule; Boeing has said it expects to complete that certification and begin deliveries in 2027.