Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford revealed that the agency has not authorized Boeing Commercial Airplanes to increase its 737 MAX production rate, and has not yet determined when that authorization may be given.
More than that, the administrator told reporters that the agency has not yet decided if or when to end its oversight of 737 MAX production at Boeing’s Reston, Wash., complex.
"Progress is being made," according to Bedford’s comments to media in Washington, D.C., this week. "It may not be as fast perhaps as Boeing would like, but it is as fast as we can reasonably move through the process."
Boeing has not commented on Bedford’s statements.
FAA inspectors have been monitoring activities at the 737 MAX complex since early last year, following the midair failure of a side door panel aboard a 737 MAX-9 jet in January 2024. The agency also put a limit on production volume there, 38 aircraft per month.
Aircraft deliveries are critical to the revenue stream for Boeing, which has been hopeful of raising its output to 42 jets/month this year.
Bedford toured the Renton complex in August and discussed plant safety and product quality standards in place there. He said at that time that FAA would review the production-rate increase with Boeing.
In May, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, speaking to an audience of investors, said FAA would approve a production rate of 42 jets per month in the weeks to come.
Speaking this week, FAA’s Bedford said: "This is going to be a bottom-up process - the front-line FAA team (i.e., at Boeing in Renton, Wash.) - that's really on them to make the recommendation of whether they feel like we've reached some of the milestones that would warrant any kind of chang.
“None of those recommendations have come up yet. That tells me the work is still ongoing," Bedford concluded.
