The Federal Aviation Administration announced it will restore Boeing's airworthiness certification power for its beleaguered 737 MAX and 787 aircraft for the first time in years.
This comes just two weeks after the agency proposed $3.1 million in fines against the manufacturer for safety violations occurring over a six-month period from September 2023 to February 2024.
"The FAA will allow limited delegation to Boeing for issuing airworthiness certificates for some 737 MAX and 787 airplanes starting on September 29, 2025. An airworthiness certificate confirms an aircraft is safe to operate," the agency said in a statement on Friday.
"Safety drives everything we do, and the FAA will only allow this step forward because we are confident it can be done safely. This decision follows a thorough review of Boeing’s ongoing production quality and will allow our inspectors to focus additional surveillance in the production process," the FAA added.
"The FAA will continue to maintain direct and rigorous oversight of Boeing's production processes. Boeing and the FAA will issue airworthiness certificates on alternating weeks."
The agency recently renewed Boeing’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) for three years, effective June 1, 2025.
According to the FAA, "resuming limited delegation to the Boeing ODA will enable FAA inspectors to provide additional surveillance in the production process."
This means that there will be more FAA inspectors observing critical aspects of production in addition to the aircraft manufacturer's safety culture, "ensuring that Boeing employees can report safety issues without fear of retribution."
The FAA first halted Boeing from issuing airworthiness certificates for 737 MAX airplanes in 2019 following a pair of deadly crashes. The company then lost the authority to certify its Boeing 787 airplanes in 2022 because of production quality issues.
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