FAA allows Boeing to increase 737 Max production nearly two years after door plug flew off plane

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it is going to enable Boeing to produce more 737 Max airplanes by growing the month-to-month restrict that it imposed after a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines jet that the company constructed.

Boeing can now produce 42 Max jets per month, up from 38, after security inspectors carried out intensive reviews of the aerospace company’s manufacturing traces to guarantee an increase in production might be performed safely, the FAA said.

The company had set a cap on production shortly after the terrifying January 2024 incident involving the Alaska Airlines 737 Max jet. In follow, though, the production fee fell properly below the ceiling last 12 months as the company contended with investigations and a machinists’ strike that idled factories for virtually eight weeks. But Boeing said over the summer time that it had reached the month-to-month cap in the second quarter and would finally search the FAA’s permission to start producing more of the planes.

A spokesperson for Boeing said Friday that the company adopted a “disciplined process” to make sure it was prepared to safely increase production, utilizing security pointers and efficiency objectives that it set with the FAA.

“We appreciate the work by our team, our suppliers and the FAA to ensure we are prepared to increase production with safety and quality at the forefront,” Boeing said in a assertion.

The FAA also said Friday this received’t change the way in which it oversees Boeing production processes and its efforts to strengthen the company’s security tradition, including that FAA inspectors at Boeing plants have continued to work through the federal authorities shutdown that started Oct. 1.

Just last month, the FAA also restored Boeing’s potential to carry out ultimate security inspections on 737 Max jetliners and certify them for flight. Boeing hadn’t been allowed to do that for more than six years, after two crashes of the then-new model killed 346 people. The FAA took full control over 737 Max approvals in 2019, after the second of the two crashes that have been later blamed on a new software program system Boeing developed for the plane.

Earlier this 12 months, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg confronted questions from a Senate committee about the production fee of the 737 Max, with lawmakers looking for reassurance from Ortberg that the company was prioritizing high quality and security over assembly production targets for revenue.

“Just to be very clear, we won’t ramp up production if the performance isn’t indicating a stable production system,” Ortberg said at the April listening to. “We will continue to work on getting to a stable system.”

The incident involving the Alaska Airlines flight that prompted the production cap on Max jets was among a collection of alleged security violations by Boeing between September 2023 and February 2024 that led to the FAA looking for $3.1 million in fines from the company.