In this file photo taken on June 29, 2020 a Boeing 737 MAX jet comes in for a landing following a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. The grounded Boeing 737 MAX moved another step closer towards flyin
U.S. aviation regulators announced an important milestone in returning Boeing Co.’s grounded 737 Max jet to service, an event one person familiar with the process said could now happen as early as October.
Boeing rose 3.2% to $180 at 12:37 p.m. in New York.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday announced it is preparing to issue formal legal directives for repairs required on the jet, which indicates that the agency is satisfied the manufacturer has satisfactorily completed software and hardware updates to the plane. The public will have 45 days to comment on the FAA’s action.
With the public comment period and multiple other steps required before a final action, the grounding probably won’t be lifted until October at the earliest, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak about the issue and asked not to be named.
That is later than the "mid-year” Boeing had most recently projected, but few carriers are clamoring for the plane with air traffic plunging due to the pandemic.
The FAA said it plans "in the near future” to release a proposed new regulation codifying the changes to the plane that will be required before it can resume carrying passengers.
