The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared the Boeing 737 Max 10 model to advance to the next stage of the certification process which entails test flights for the FAA to gather flight data. 

Since the grounding of the 737 Max linked to crashes in 2018 and 2019, Boeing has met with a series of obstacles in its effort to certify its 737 Max 7 and Max 10 models for passenger air travel which was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the models face strict new testing requirements after the US Congress passed the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act to improve previous certification oversights.

Boeing completed the certification flight tests for the Max 7 model under these new requirements in 2021, the results of which are currently under review by the FAA. The company anticipates that certification of the Max 7 will be completed by the end of 2023, or early next year, while certification on the Max 10 model is envisioned to be completed towards the end of 2024.

The commercial passenger airline industry is projected to rapidly recover following the COVID-19 pandemic and Project Blue estimates that the demand for air travel will return to pre-pandemic levels between 2024 and 2026. Despite the predicted industry rebound, aircraft maintenance and production delays are placing pressure on existing aerospace infrastructure. These delays are related to slow recovery of raw material supply chains after the pandemic. Additionally, the full impacts of the Russian-Ukraine conflict on the titanium supply chain are yet to be felt, as demand for aerospace-grade titanium metal has remained low since 2019. While delays in certifications will allow additional breathing space for the titanium metal supply chain, the expected rapid recovery of the commercial airline industry in line with pre-COVID travel demand will soon add pressure to aerospace supply chains.