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By Howard Hardee
July 17, 2026, © Leeham News: After years of increased FAA oversight of Boeing’s airworthiness certification process for newly produced jets, the regulator has restored the airframer’s ability to issue its own certificates prior to delivering 737 Max and 787 aircraft to airlines.
The FAA’s decision goes into effect on July 20, providing the latest signal of improving health across Boeing’s commercial aircraft production system and increased trust from the world’s largest civil aviation regulator.
However, it remains unclear whether Boeing has recovered all aspects of its Organization Designation Authorization (ODA), which allows it to perform certain certification functions in-house. With ODA authority, Boeing employees can approve certain engineering and design changes and conduct conformity inspections. Issuing airworthiness certificates for aircraft can be among the tasks delegated by the FAA.
Asked to clarify, an FAA spokesperson said that “Boeing’s ODA unit will issue airworthiness certificates for all newly produced Boeing 737 and 787 airplanes.”
“The ODA authority we took away from Boeing was the authority to issue airworthiness certificates for Boeing 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner airplanes,” the FAA further explained. “We partially restored that authority in September 2025 and fully restored that authority effective July 20.”
Boeing’s ability to issue airworthiness certificates for the 737 Max program was revoked following two Max crashes that killed all aboard both jets. From that year onward, the FAA performed final airworthiness checks for newly produced 737s.
Then, in 2022, the FAA revoked Boeing’s ability to sign off on 787 Dreamliners, a response to a slew of quality issues that plagued the widebody program.
Boeing has been incrementally regaining the FAA’s trust. Last September, the regulator allowed it to issue airworthiness certificates for some 737 Max and 787 aircraft, with Boeing and the FAA alternating weeks of issuing those certificates.
“During the past eight months, the FAA has seen comparable production quality findings when Boeing issued airworthiness certificates and when the FAA issued them,” the FAA said on July 17.
“Based on these results, the FAA determined it can safely return this responsibility to Boeing.”
The FAA will continue conducting audits and inspections of Boeing’s factories. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that inspectors will turn attention to “identifying and addressing potential risks earlier in the manufacturing process.”
FAA staffing levels could be a factor as Boeing increases monthly 737 production levels, according to a former Boeing employee with knowledge of the company’s commercial production system. As Boeing boosts production, the FAA may not have enough personnel to issue airworthiness certificates for all aircraft rolling off its factory lines.
Boeing said that it will “continue to work under the oversight of the FAA in building safe, high-quality commercial airplanes that comply with all airworthiness certification requirements.”
Boeing Commercial Airplanes has been riding a wave of positive momentum into the Farnborough International Airshow, having received the FAA’s approval to increase 737 Max production to 47 aircraft per month, an increase of five aircraft. Earlier this month, BCA started early production of 737 Max 10s on its new North Line in Everett, Washington. Finally securing type certification of the 737 Max 7 also appears close at hand.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to reflect additional commentary from the FAA on restoring Boeing ODA authority.
If the present administration can intervene in disciplinary matters of the football World Cup and the Blue Angel’s,how can we be sure it wouldn’t lean on the FAA?I don’t think it is, but I wouldn’t bet my house
This is very positive news and the correct path for the FAA to reinstate the delegated authority.
One of the biggest challenges for the past 10 years for ODA authority was the undue pressure from Boeing management, which per the regulations is a critical factor for the ODA’s to function in their duties.
The FAA wouldn’t have reinstated this if Boeing hadn’t made immense progress with correcting this problem.
I’m sure the regulators will be closely monitoring, as they should.
FAA Manpower has been stretched for years by Boeing. The other users of the System such as Bell Helicopter Sikorski all the Bizjet makers have been reporting slowdown in their business because of the need to staff up Boeing. The consulting DAR and DER companies have been running flat out to keep up and fill the FAA gap.
Love to know if full TC ODA was reinstated
PNWgeek
Yes, full ODA authorization is approved. Caveat is ensuring standards to process and regulation compliance.. as always.
This is not true. The FAA does not ‘borrow’ from manufacturers that they are certified for; helicopter ODA to a Part 25 airframe manufacturer… give me a break.
Contract DAR’s have been around forever. They are contracted by mostly airlines and business jet/part 135 operators to oversee STC 337 engineering projects.
Airdoc. Happy to hear its Full ODA reinstatement. I was never certain if the other ODAs Boeing holds were also suspended. They have MRO, TC, PC, PMA, maybe another but Im not sure.
The Fort Worth directorate has been monitoring Safran Landing Gear ( formely Dowty Messier Bugatti) and a few others in the Seattle area instead of the Seattle people. I knew them from my Rotary wing PMA work, Its not places where Boeing specific skills are needed but universal monitoring skills, The Wichita aerospace cluster was also similarly impacted. The FAA people moved to Boeing when Congress got pissed, and the backstopping is from that nationwide push. Its been unwinding of late as the FAA hires more staff because ofmany things, not the least of which is all the air taxi vehicle startups. Most of the FAA DER new hires were landing in Seattle and moving backstopping staff back. BUT the contract DER/DAR community is still running near flat out to plugholes. The normal workload for STC guys doing PMA approvals was unloaded from the District MIDO offices to Consultants. The wind down of hyper vigilance at Boeing has allowed for smaller companies to get back into the MIDO work queues. Smaller companies that relied on FAA staff Engineering for approvals are just now coming back to life. Coulsons 767 Tanker program has been slowed by this. The NVG cockpit conversions are starting again for nightime fire ops. Hopefully Ill be cutting NVG glass again soon. I had to update my quality plan. It IS a small industry at times..
interesting read
China Is Making Boeing Optional
“China’s rail network now includes roughly 50,000 kilometres of high-speed track, within about 165,000 kilometres of national railway”
“That distinction is especially important below roughly 1,000 kilometres. Passengers do not travel from runway to runway. They travel from one urban district to another, and high-speed rail often provides a faster and more predictable complete journey on dense corridors”
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/07/15/china-rail-comac-makes-boeing-optional/
a couple decades ago I had the pleasure of interviewing R.E.G. Davies (see link) for my commercial aircraft research The one thought he left me with was India was always going to be rail dominated (not aircraft) for moving people around the country (e.g. lack of tier 1 and 2 airports (tarmac) and cost of flying)
I think this has some similarities to China (e.g. both populations over 1 billion) and China has well developed high speed rail (India is just starting its high speed rail (India’s high-speed rail network is headlined by the under-construction Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor. Set to be India’s first bullet train, the 508-km line will operate at 320 km/h, reducing travel time between the two cities from 5 hours to about 2 hours. ) and will take decades to develop across India
That said, as Farnborough Airshow is upon us and commercial aircraft companies forecasts keep using the same growth models as the past 5 decades (x% times 20 years for fleet size), we need to realize with rising costs of operations (labor and fuel) the world as whole will not be able to fly as much as it wants for more mobility
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/archives-spotlight-ron-davies-air-transport-collection
Everyone:
It’s necessary to give you a reminder.
Moderating comments is not my 24/7 job. I’ve not only had to manage this site and produce content, I actually try to have a personal life which some commenters seem not to have outside commenting on this site.
In recent months, weeks and days, my attention has been unusually focused on work areas. especially in the run up to Farnborough. Now that I’m in the UK and have some free time before the show starts, I’m back to taking a closer look.
Discipline by the commenters to adhere to rules is critical to the success of this section that is useful for all. I have suspended ALL ability to comment in the past because a few didn’t get it. This penalizes everyone. The other option is to suspend or block repeat offenders. I’m loath to do this, but I have in the past and will in the future.
Shape up.
Hamilton
This is an important sign that FAA feels confident that quality at Boeing is being restored.
And since Boeing has created KPI’s with the FAA that are objective standards of measure, and applied them to all their lines, it’s based on real production data this time.
Facts Only
* The FAA restored its ability to issue airworthiness certificates for newly produced Boeing 737 and 787 aircraft on July 20.
* The authority to issue airworthiness certificates for Boeing 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner airplanes was partially restored in September 2025 and fully restored effective July 20.
* Boeing’s ability to issue airworthiness certificates for the 737 Max program was revoked after two Max crashes.
* In 2022, the FAA revoked Boeing’s ability to sign off on 787 Dreamliners due to quality issues.
* The FAA found comparable production quality findings when Boeing and the FAA issued certificates over the past eight months.
* The FAA will continue conducting audits and inspections of Boeing factories.
* FAA staffing levels could be a factor as Boeing increases monthly 737 production.
* Boeing plans to continue working under FAA oversight to build safe, high-quality commercial airplanes.
* Boeing has received FAA approval to increase 737 Max production to 47 aircraft per month.
Executive Summary
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has restored the airframer’s ability to issue airworthiness certificates for newly produced Boeing 737 Max and 787 aircraft, effective July 20. This action follows increased FAA oversight of Boeing's certification process. The FAA spokesperson clarified that the authority previously taken away from Boeing concerned issuing airworthiness certificates for these specific aircraft. Boeing’s ability to issue these certificates was revoked following crashes involving the 737 Max and quality issues with the 787 Dreamliner in 2022.
The FAA stated that recent findings showed comparable production quality when Boeing issued certificates versus when the FAA issued them, leading the FAA to determine it could safely return this responsibility to Boeing. The FAA will continue factory audits and inspections, focusing on identifying risks earlier in manufacturing. This development occurs while Boeing pursues increased production goals for the 737 Max, including aiming for 47 aircraft per month.
Full Take
The restoration of delegated authority signals a shift in the regulatory dynamic, moving from direct control to a system of audited trust. The key tension lies between restoring operational capacity for Boeing and maintaining rigorous safety oversight. The context suggests that the FAA's action is predicated on incremental progress in quality assurance, using production data as the basis for regaining confidence rather than relying solely on prior mandates or management assurances.
The narrative highlights a systemic pattern where regulatory authority is contingent upon measurable outcomes. The mention of ODA authority and the pressure from Boeing management suggests that previous limitations were not just administrative but rooted in an operational tension; the ability to perform functions in-house was constrained by internal pressures. Furthermore, the discussion about staffing levels for the FAA points to a potential structural vulnerability where increased production might outpace regulatory capacity, regardless of quality improvements. The parallel drawn between Boeing's situation and broader themes of infrastructure development (rail versus air) suggests that external systemic constraints influence aerospace realities.
This implies that true resilience requires not just restoring specific certifications but establishing long-term, demonstrable mechanisms—like the KPI framework mentioned—that allow for continuous, self-validating oversight rather than periodic trust re-assessments. The implications point toward whether regulatory authority can effectively manage rapidly scaling industrial processes without being continually undermined by the scale of production demands and the associated resource limitations within the regulating body.
Bridge Questions: If quality metrics are demonstrably restored, what specific, independent mechanisms must be put in place to prevent future capacity constraints from impeding airworthiness certification speed? How can regulators ensure that workforce expansion does not introduce new systemic risks into the delegation structure? What is the long-term relationship between industry growth models and regulatory oversight capacity?
Sentinel — Human
The core reporting is fact-based, but the appended commentary introduces significant subjective opinion and varied perspectives, strongly indicating a human authorial process rather than pure machine generation.