The US Congress has voted against granting Boeing more time to certify the B737-7 and the B737-10 without retrofitting upgraded safety systems. Unless the must-pass National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) is amended, the manufacturer will suffer a major setback in its efforts to certify the final two B737 MAX variants.
Safety standards introduced in 2020 following the crashes of two B737-8s and the family's consequent global grounding, have been a major bone of contention between Boeing and the lawmakers in that all aircraft certified after December 27, 2022, must include additional safety systems, which the B737-7 and -10 lack. As Boeing has admitted that the -7, the first of the two types, will certify in 2023, an exemption is the only way for it to complete type certification without major retrofits that could significantly retard the process.
Democratic Senator and Commerce Committee chairwoman Maria Cantwell proposed to grant an exemption but under the condition that all B737 MAX, including those in-service, will all eventually be retrofitted with the updated systems. A number of Republicans favoured granting Boeing an unconditional extension. The GOP will take control of the US House of Representatives (although not the Senate) in early January 2023, after the expiration of the current deadline. The NDAA, which could include the extension, is a must-pass bill and is likely to be signed into law before the end of the year.
Boeing has developed systems compliant with the more stringent safety protocols but plans to offer them to customers as voluntary retrofits. It warned earlier that if the retrofits become mandatory for the certification of the -7 and the -10, it could scrap the variants and focus on the already certified -8s and -9s.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows the current MAX 7 backlog numbers 293 units (237 of them earmarked for Southwest Airlines) and for 783 aircraft (252 for United Airlines) for the MAX 10.
Meanwhile, even if the US eventually grants Boeing an extension, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will likely mandate the retrofits as obligatory on its own.
"Boeing has committed to make these upgrades available for retrofit. The actual retrofit of the in-service fleet can be achieved by different means, including possibly mandatory action from the FAA or EASA," the EU's agency spokesperson told The Seattle Times.
While historically, the US FAA and the EASA adopted the same standards for aircraft certification, the two regulators have occasionally diverged on how to handle the B737 MAX ungrounding. EASA conducted its own independent safety review prior to allowing the type to restart operations and imposed marginally stricter conditions on Boeing.
