Boeing 737 MAX 10 Approved After Six-Year Delay, Clearing 1,500 Orders

Boeing’s largest 737 MAX has cleared the regulatory barrier that kept it from customers for six years. The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday issued certification for the 737 MAX 10, allowing Boeing to deliver the aircraft to domestic and international carriers after originally planning to begin deliveries in 2020.

The decision affects nearly 1,500 aircraft ordered by airlines and about 30% of Boeing’s outstanding 737 backlog. United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Ryanair, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are among the major customers that have waited years for the bigger MAX. Boeing has already built a handful of MAX 10s awaiting delivery.

Certification is therefore more than a procedural milestone. It changes the MAX 10 from an aircraft Boeing could build and test into one it can deliver, moving a substantial portion of the company’s narrow-body order book closer to airline service. For carriers that developed fleet-growth plans around the model, the approval removes a major source of schedule uncertainty, although it does not mean all outstanding aircraft can be produced or delivered immediately.

A more demanding certification environment

The FAA issued an amended type certificate confirming that the MAX 10 complies with applicable design and safety requirements. It also updated Boeing’s Production Limitation Record to authorize production. The agency said its review included thousands of hours of test flights.

The process unfolded under the more stringent certification framework that followed the fatal 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. The resulting policy reforms placed greater emphasis on FAA expertise, limits on delegated certification work, disclosure of safety-critical information, human factors and assumptions about how pilots respond to cockpit automation.

For the MAX 10, the FAA required improvements addressing federal aircraft-certification legislation and National Transportation Safety Board recommendations. These included flight-control updates and an enhanced angle-of-attack sensor, which measures airplane pitch. Boeing finalized design changes for that sensor and the engine anti-ice system earlier in 2026.

The anti-ice issue had been a direct obstacle to certification. Identified in 2023, it affected the engines used by both the smaller MAX 7 and the MAX 10 and contributed to delays for both variants. The FAA approved the MAX 7 in August after a review lasting more than eight years.

A separate navigation-software glitch disclosed by Boeing in late September briefly added another review point. The FAA determined that the issue did not present a safety concern and did not require Boeing to correct it as a condition of MAX 10 certification.

Approval shifts the constraint to production

Boeing opened another 737 MAX production line at its Everett, Washington, factory in July, supplementing its established assembly operation in Renton. Everett has enough floor space to accommodate a line composed entirely of the longer MAX 10, while the Renton lines can stagger the model among smaller variants.

That production footprint matters because certification resolves only the regulatory hold. Boeing must now convert an order base approaching 1,500 aircraft into completed, conforming jets while its manufacturing and quality systems remain under heightened scrutiny following the January 2024 cabin-panel blowout on a nearly new Alaska Airlines MAX 9.

The MAX 10 offers airlines the highest passenger capacity in the MAX family, with configurations of up to 210 seats, but its range of up to 3,100 nautical miles is shorter than that of smaller variants. The design is aimed at routes where additional seats are more valuable than maximum range, giving airlines a larger narrow-body option without moving to a different aircraft family.

After slipping from 2020 to 2026, the MAX 10 has finally crossed from prolonged development into an approved commercial product. Boeing’s next challenge is physical rather than documentary: delivering the waiting aircraft at a rate that begins reducing the 30% of its 737 backlog tied to this one model.

By Thomas Caldwell — AMI’s senior editor for mechanical and mobility engineering, covering vehicle electronics, systems integration, electrification, chassis systems, propulsion, and safety policy.