Boeing wins support in push to extend MAX certification timetable

By David Shepardson

SPARTANBURG, S.C (Reuters) – Boeing (NYSE:) Co won support Wednesday from a Republican senator and a major customer in its bid to convince the U.S. Congress to extend the deadline to win certification of two new 737 MAX variants.

The U.S. planemaker faces a late December deadline for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to certify the MAX 7 and MAX 10. After that date, all planes must have modern cockpit alerting systems to be certified by the FAA, which would mean significant delays for the new MAX aircrafts’ deployment, unless Congress grants a waiver to extend the deadline.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Reuters he supports attaching a MAX deadline waiver to a spending bill or another measure before Congress.

“We’re going to fight as hard as we can to get Boeing the opportunity to prove that the plane works and it does work,” Graham said on the sidelines of an event.

The requirements were approved by Congress in late 2020 as part of FAA certification reforms after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the bestselling plane’s 20-month grounding.

Earlier Wednesday, United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby (NYSE:) also backed the extension, saying it makes sense to have a common 737 alerting system. “It’s a right safety outcome,” Kirby told CNBC. “Changing the cockpit is a bad safety outcome.”

United in 2017 ordered 100 MAX 10s. Without an extension United would convert some orders to MAX 8 and 9s, Kirby said, “and we’re going to buy more Airbus 321 airplanes,” which would impact Boeing’s U.S. workers.

“We should all be rooting for Boeing,” Kirby added, citing its impact on the U.S. economy and exports.

Earlier this month, Senator Roger Wicker unsuccessfully sought to attach an extension of the requirements through September 2024 to a defense bill.

Pilots are split, with the union representing Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) pilots in support and the union representing American Airlines (NASDAQ:) pilots opposed.

Families of some MAX crash victims are also opposed as is C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, who rose to fame in 2009 as a commercial pilot who safely landed an Airbus A320 on New York’s Hudson (NYSE:) River after hitting a flock of geese. FAA “must require the installation of modern crew alerting systems,” Sullenberger said Friday.

Even with a waiver, it is uncertain when MAX planes could be approved.

The FAA in an Oct. 12 letter said some key documents Boeing submitted in the agency’s ongoing review of the MAX 7 are incomplete, while Boeing does not anticipate winning approval for the MAX 10 before next summer.

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