The Federal Aviation Administration has not made a decision on whether it should lift the 737 Max production cap or on its oversight of the aircraft maker’s output, Reuters reported, citing the agency’s head Bryan Bedford.
The 38-aircraft monthly production cap has been in place since 2024, following a midair panel failure on an Alaska Airlines flight.
“Progress is being made,” Bedford told reporters after a summit in Washington on Monday. “It may not be as fast perhaps as Boeing (NYSE:BA) would like, but it is as fast as we can reasonably move through the process.”
Boeing (NYSE:BA) executives previously indicated plans to raise 737 production to 42 aircraft per month, once regulatory approval is secured.
“This is going to be a bottom-up process – the front-line FAA team, that’s really on them to make the recommendation of whether they feel like we’ve reached some of the milestones that would warrant any kind of change,” Bedford said. “None of those recommendations have come up yet. That tells me the work is still ongoing.”
Separately, Bedford underscored the need to modernize air traffic control technology as the current system is “failing every day in small things” – including circuits breaking and telecom lines getting cut.
The FAA is pursuing a $12.5B overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system. It recently launched a search for a prime integrator to manage building a new system.