The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) intends to conduct scenario-based planning, known as tabletop exercises, with Boeing before it considers lifting the 38-plane-per-month cap on B737 MAX production, Reuters reported quoting the head of the agency, Bryan Bedford.
Through these exercises, the FAA will review potential issues the manufacturer may face if it boosts production and aims to ensure Boeing maintains progress on quality.
While Boeing has not asked the FAA to increase the rate, and the agency has not agreed to do so, both parties have concurred that “it would make sense to start to develop the process by which we would entertain a rate increase conversation,” Bedford told Reuters.
The FAA is still developing the exercises and hopes to have them ready by the end of September. “Then if they want to ask us for an increase, at least we will have a roadmap on how we can evaluate it.”
In a statement to ch-aviation, Boeing referred to comments from Kelly Ortberg, the company's chief executive, during a second-quarter investors call: “We'll continue to use key performance indicators that have been agreed to with the FAA to measure the health of the production system [...]. We expect to be in a position to request approval from the FAA in the coming months to increase to 42 aircraft per month.”
The current production cap was placed to ensure Boeing’s adherence to all standards after Alaska Airlines’ mid-air incident involving a B737-9 in January 2024.
