Boeing could be forced to cancel 737 MAX 10, according to CEO
Jul 7, 2022, 5:30 PM
A Boeing 737 MAX 10 airliner taxis at Boeing Field after its first flight on June 18, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. The 737 MAX 10 is Boeing's newest model since regulators cleared the 737 MAX to fly again in November 2020. (Photo by Ellen Banner-Pool/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ellen Banner-Pool/Getty Images)
Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told Aviation Week in an interview that the planemaker could be forced to cancel the 737 Max 10 over potential regulatory issues.
Boeing has a December deadline to win approval for the 737 MAX 10 — the largest member of its best-selling single-aisle airplane family. Otherwise, it must meet new cockpit alerting requirements under a 2020 law, unless Congress waives it.
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“If you go through the things we’ve been through, the debts that we’ve had to accumulate, our ability to respond, or willingness to see things through even a world without the -10 is not that threatening,” Calhoun told Aviation Week, adding that he does not expect to cancel the 737 MAX 10 but said, “it’s just a risk.”
Even with the announcement, shares of Boeing Co. BA, +2.69% advanced 2.69% to $139.97 Thursday, on what proved to be an all-around favorable trading session for the stock market. The stock outperformed some of its competitors Thursday, as Honeywell International Inc. HON, +0.33% rose 0.33% to $173.79, Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT, -0.87% fell 0.87% to $422.19, and Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC, -0.52% fell 0.52% to $479.38.
The 2022 deadline was mandated by Congress as part of broader regulatory reforms at the FAA after fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
Boeing has more than 640 orders for MAX 10 planes from 17 airlines, Aviation Week said. In June 2021, United Airlines said it would order another 150 MAX 10s.
In March, the FAA warned Boeing it may not win certification of the MAX 10 by the end of the year and asked the company to provide a “mature certification schedule.”
