The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday certified Boeing's 737 Max 7 for commercial service, clearing the smallest jet in the company's Max family for airline use nearly a decade after Boeing first unveiled it.
Monday's approval is a milestone in Boeing's push to work through years of safety, quality and production problems that have cost it market share to European rival Airbus and made the 737 — its bestseller — the center of the company's troubles. The Max 7 is one of several certifications Boeing is chasing this year as Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg tries to return the aerospace maker to sustained profitability.
What the FAA cleared
The FAA said it cleared the plane after years of additional testing, design changes and an extensive review of its design and safety systems. Certification was delayed as Boeing addressed technical issues and worked through heightened regulatory scrutiny following two crashes of the larger Max 8 that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. The agency said its oversight of Boeing would continue beyond Monday's approval.
Since those crashes, the AP reported, the FAA has overhauled how it certifies Boeing aircraft.
Ortberg's repair job
Ortberg, who took over as chief executive in 2024, has worked to mend Boeing's relationships with regulators, and the FAA has since lifted some of the production caps it had imposed on the company, according to Semafor. "They really are getting that thing turned around," Ryanair's chief executive told investors earlier this year, the outlet said.
Semafor described the Max 7 approval and the additional certifications Boeing is targeting later this year as "crucial in getting the company back to profitability," after the 2018 and 2019 Max 8 crashes helped Airbus pull ahead in global plane deliveries. Airbus's best-selling A320 remains a "generation ahead of the 737 in design terms," the Financial Times wrote in an assessment Semafor quoted.
What Monday didn't include
Monday's wire accounts did not include direct comment from Boeing on the approval, nor from critics who have scrutinized the FAA's earlier clearances of the 737 Max family. The AP said only that the agency's oversight of Boeing would continue after Monday's decision.
Boeing is targeting additional certifications this year, Semafor said, in a lineup its executives view as central to closing the delivery gap with Airbus.