Boeing 737 MAX 10 certification: FAA approves jet six years late

Key takeaways

• The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified the Boeing 737-10, the largest 737 MAX variant, on 20 October 2026. It issued an amended type certificate and an updated Production Limitation Record.
• The jet was first presented at the 2017 Paris Air Show and was meant to enter service in 2020, so it arrives about six years late.
• Boeing says 1,555 MAX 10s are on order from more than 30 customers. That is more than 30% of the unfilled 737 MAX order book. Deliveries are due to begin "in the coming months."
• The approval starts statutory clocks. New 737 MAX jets will need an enhanced angle-of-attack and crew-alerting package from about October 2027, and the in-service fleet will need it from about October 2029.
• Some issues are still open: a known flight-management software bug the FAA judged not safety-critical, the pace of production increases, and when individual airlines will actually receive aircraft.

What the FAA approved

The FAA granted Boeing 737 MAX 10 certification on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, issuing an amended type certificate for the largest 737 MAX and an updated Production Limitation Record that lets Boeing build it for delivery. The jet arrives about six years late.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the decision "follows a thorough review of the aircraft's design and safety requirements," and added that the agency would "continue to hold Boeing to the highest safety standards." US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called it a "major win for American manufacturing," according to The Seattle Times. For airlines' current pressures, see why US airfares are going up.

Boeing said the certification campaign included nearly 1,000 test flights, more than 2,000 flight hours and about 1,000 hours of ground testing. It also said the 737-10 is the first commercial aircraft certified to the full extent of the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA). Congress passed that law in 2020 after two fatal 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people. The act tightened requirements for safety assessments and human-factors evaluations.

The main design change is an enhanced angle-of-attack (AoA) system. Faulty AoA sensor data contributed to both fatal accidents. Boeing says the enhanced system will become standard across the 737 MAX family. The Seattle Times also reported an engine anti-ice fix, similar to one required on the smaller 737-7. The FAA certified the 737-7 in August 2026, so the 737-10 completes the certified MAX family.

How long the delay took

Most of the delay came from forces outside the 737-10 programme itself. The fleet grounding after the two crashes, the stricter certification regime that followed, and the January 2024 door-plug blowout on a 737-9 all slowed Boeing's certification work. The milestones below come from Boeing and from contemporaneous reporting.

The navigation software issue

The last-minute snag came from the flight management computer, not from the airframe. According to Reuters, the vertical navigation (VNAV) mode, which automates the aircraft's vertical flight path, could disengage during an approach on some 737 MAX flight computers running software version U14.1. The condition needs a specific sequence of pilot inputs. Reuters reported that WestJet found it during an entry-into-service test flight.

On 2 October an FAA Corrective Action Review Board met in Seattle and concluded that the glitch was not a safety concern. Reuters quoted the FAA as saying that "pilots retain full control of the aircraft and the indications to the flight crew are clear and unambiguous." Leeham News reported that the FAA certified the 737-10 with the known bug still present, after classifying it as not safety-critical. Neither the FAA nor Boeing has given a public timetable for a software fix. The same software is used on the 737-7.

The 737 MAX family at a glance

The 737-10 is a stretched 737-9 aimed at routes where airlines want more seats per departure. Figures are Boeing's as of its 20 October 2026 release.

Source: Boeing, "U.S. FAA certifies Boeing 737-10, largest member of 737 MAX family," 20 October 2026.

Backlog, deliveries and airline customers

Boeing says customers have ordered 7,350 737 MAX aircraft and that nearly 2,500 had been delivered by the end of September 2026. On those figures, roughly 4,850 remain to be delivered (Bullquill calculation). The 1,555 MAX 10 orders are about a third of that backlog, which is consistent with Boeing's "more than 30%" description. Until now, those orders could not turn into deliveries.

Boeing has not named all of its 737-10 customers in the release. United Airlines is the largest disclosed customer, with 167 firm orders, according to Aerospace Global News. United had previously said it did not expect deliveries before at least summer 2027. Boeing's own guidance says only "in the coming months." Leeham News expects first deliveries early next year. Because each carrier negotiates its own delivery slots, the date of a first delivery tells customers little about when the rest of their aircraft will arrive.

Some aircraft are already built. Boeing's quarterly report for the period ended 30 June 2026 said about 40 737-7 and 737-10 aircraft were in inventory. These jets will need any required changes before handover, and they can be delivered faster than new builds.

Production caps and the ramp-up

The production question matters as much as the certificate. After the January 2024 door-plug blowout, the FAA capped 737 output at 38 aircraft a month. Boeing received FAA clearance to go to 42 a month in October 2025. On 27 May 2026, Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said an FAA review had cleared the next step to 47 a month, Bloomberg reported. Boeing's second-quarter filing confirmed that the 737 programme had begun moving from 42 to 47 a month with the FAA's concurrence, and that low-rate production had started on a new 737 line in July 2026.

The Seattle Times reported that the 737-10 will be built in Renton and on the new Everett line, which is larger than Boeing's other three MAX lines and could be filled entirely with 737-10s. Bloomberg reported that Boeing is aiming for 52 a month early next year. Any further increase depends on FAA reviews and on supplier performance, so the delivery pace for the backlog is still uncertain.

What it means

For Boeing: The certification closes a gap in the 737 product line that had lasted for years. Boeing can now deliver the variant that makes up about a third of its 737 backlog and that competes most directly with larger single-aisle rivals. It does not remove execution risk. Boeing still has to raise output, deliver stored aircraft, and certify the 777X family, which remains in flight testing, according to Leeham News.

For airlines: Carriers that ordered the 737-10 for capacity growth or fleet replacement now have a certified aircraft. Their timing still depends on Boeing's delivery schedule. Airlines operating any 737 MAX also face the retrofit timeline described below.

For the fleet: Under 49 U.S.C. 44744, added by Section 501 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, the 737-10 certification starts two deadlines. The FAA's December 2025 notice says that, from one year after the 737-10 type certificate, the agency may not issue an original airworthiness certificate for a 737 MAX unless its type design includes "a synthetic enhanced angle of attack system and a means to shut off stall warning and overspeed alerts, or their equivalents." From three years after certification, every 737 MAX must conform to that design to operate. Counted from 20 October 2026, these deadlines fall around October 2027 and October 2029, which means a fleet-wide retrofit programme for aircraft already in service.

What is still unknown: Boeing has not published a delivery schedule by customer, and there is no public date for a fix to the flight-management bug. Regulators outside the US have not been covered in the reporting reviewed for this article, so the timing of other approvals, such as from Europe's EASA, has not been confirmed.

Sources

• Boeing: U.S. FAA certifies Boeing 737-10, largest member of 737 MAX family (20 Oct 2026)
• AvWeb: FAA Certifies Boeing 737 MAX 10
• The Seattle Times via The Spokesman-Review: Boeing 737 Max 10 lands long-awaited FAA certification
• Leeham News: Boeing 737 Max 10 Clears Certification with FAA
• CAPA: US FAA certifies 737 MAX 10, deliveries to commence "in the coming months"
• Aerospace Global News: FAA approves Boeing 737 MAX 10 type certification
• Reuters via The Star: US FAA says Boeing 737 MAX software glitch poses no safety issue (3 Oct 2026)
• Federal Register: FAA implementation plan for 737 MAX flight crew alerting requirements (15 Dec 2025)
• Boeing Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 (SEC)
• Bloomberg: Boeing Rises as CEO Touts 737 Output, New Jet Approvals Nearing
• Wikimedia Commons: 737 MAX 10 Roll Out (Nov 2019), photo record

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.