FAA Certifies Boeing 737 Max 10 for Passenger Service, Ending Nearly a Decade of Delays

The Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing's 737 Max 10 for passenger service on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. That ends years of delays on the largest jet in the 737 Max family.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy marked the occasion at Boeing's factory in Everett, Washington. He presented the certification to Boeing engineers and executives and said it followed "extensive safety reviews," including thousands of hours of test flights.

Duffy called it a major win for American manufacturing.

"To think that it took us almost 10 years to get here," Duffy said. "We all probably had a little less gray hair 10 years ago."

A decade in the making

Boeing introduced the Max 10 at the Paris air show in 2017. It was meant to take on Airbus in the profitable single-aisle market.

Technical and regulatory hurdles repeatedly pushed back certification. With the approval, Boeing can now sell the aircraft to domestic and foreign carriers.

Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, spoke at the Everett event. She said the certification "clears the path to deliver an airplane that will set a new standard in commercial aviation."

"Today is a very, very special day," Pope said. "It marks another major milestone in our recovery, and it unlocks a key to our future growth."

Boeing expects to begin deliveries in 2027. No airline has a Max 10 in service today.

The backlog

The delays have frozen a large piece of Boeing's order book. More than 30 customers worldwide have ordered 1,555 Max 10s that Boeing has not delivered. That is more than 30% of its total 737 Max backlog.

Major customers include United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Ryanair. Alaska Airlines joined the list in January with an order for 105 Max 10s and options for 35 more.

The jet typically seats 185 to 210 passengers, according to Boeing. The Max 9 seats 175 to 195, and the Max 8 seats 160 to 180.

For airlines, the extra seats offer a way to carry more passengers per flight and potentially cut costs per seat. Whether that reaches travelers as lower fares depends on how carriers deploy the planes and how much competition they face.

Competing with the A321neo

The Max 10 is built to go up against Airbus's A321neo family, which entered service in 2017. The largest A321neo carries more passengers and flies farther without refueling than the Max 10.

That means Boeing arrives roughly a decade behind a rival that has had the segment largely to itself. Whether the Max 10 wins back meaningful ground is a commercial question the certification does not answer.

The shadow over Boeing

The approval lands against a heavy backdrop. Two crashes involving the smaller Max 8 killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia.

In 2024, a panel flew off an Alaska Airlines Max 9 in midair. That renewed scrutiny of Boeing's manufacturing and safety practices.

A jury recently ordered Boeing to pay $49.5 million to the family of a 737 Max crash victim. Boeing's own description of the Max 10 certification is that it is "another major milestone in our recovery." That is the company's framing of where it stands.

The FAA's sign-off settles the design question for this airplane. It does not settle whether Boeing can build 1,555 of them to the standard regulators and the public now expect.

Duffy's department said the certification followed extensive safety review, and the FAA has now put its name on that conclusion. Boeing's next hurdle is production: the first Max 10 deliveries to airlines are scheduled for 2027, and those handovers will be the first real-world test of the plane and of Boeing's quality systems.