The Boeing 737 MAX 7 certification is taking a "considerable amount of time" owing to increased paperwork requirements, but the planemaker still expects it will be approved by the end of the year, according to a company executive on Wednesday. Both the MAX 7 and MAX 10 are regarded as important for Boeing's ability to compete with Airbus for orders at the bigger and smaller ends of the narrowbody market.
Southwest Airlines had planned to accept the first MAX 7 this year, but the airline's CEO has stated that plans to bring the plane into service may be postponed until 2024. Boeing is preparing the final "handful of documents" required by the FAA as it moves through the regulatory process required to approve the 737 MAX 7 for service, according to Mike Fleming, Boeing's senior vice president for commercial development programs.
According to Fleming, the planemaker is also "close" to gaining FAA clearance to commence certification flights of its new longer 737 MAX 10. The certification of the aircraft is still scheduled for 2024, but it will depend on when Boeing receives approval to begin those flights, he added. "The amount of documentation that we're producing on these airplanes relative to what we had to produce in the past is considerably much larger than it has been," Fleming said. When asked about Boeing's remarks, the FAA stated that "safety will dictate the timeline." We make no statements about continued certifications."
Congress exempted the MAX 7 and MAX 10 in December from a new safety criterion for updated cockpit alarms that would have applied to all flights approved until late 2022. Congress mandated the rule in 2020, following two devastating 737 MAX accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.