FAA certifies Boeing 737-10

Key takeaways

• The FAA approved the amended type certificate for the 737-10.
• Boeing’s 737-10 is certified and cleared for commercial service.
• The largest MAX variant is more than 30 percent of the 737 MAX program’s current order book.

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials today signed the official certification documents for the 737-10, marking the final regulatory hurdle in bringing the largest member of the 737 MAX family to operators.

The 737-10 offers the best cost per seat of any single-aisle airplane in the market today. It is designed to give operators more capacity while keeping fleet maintenance costs low through shared MAX parts and operational flexibility.

• “Everyone should feel proud of this accomplishment as it reflects years of hard work and dedication from across our company,” said Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “In particular, I couldn’t be prouder of the 737 MAX Development team for their determination and resilience. They achieved 737-7 certification in August, while remaining focused on completing the flight tests, safety assessments and design reviews for the 737-10.”

Why it matters: The 737 MAX is the first airplane to be certified with full compliance to the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA), which provided new mandates for documentation of safety assessments and human factors evaluations.

“This certification not only clears a new airplane for deliveries, it provides a roadmap for future certification efforts in this modern era,” said Mike Sinnett, senior vice president of Product Strategy, Product Development and Development Programs. “What we have learned about meeting the new requirements is already serving us well on the 777-9 and will be invaluable to us for a generation of airplane development.”

How we got here: Certification included extensive human factors reviews, design assurance reviews and system safety analyses in coordination with the FAA. Tens of thousands of pages of documentation and many hours of formal meetings with the agency supplemented extensive flight and ground testing.

The 737-10 flight test program logged nearly 1,000 flights totaling more than 2,000 flight hours and 1,000 ground test hours. The 737-10 flight test program included compliance and performance of the enhanced Angle of Attack (eAoA) system, which will become standard across the 737 MAX family.

Go deeper on the 737 MAX family:

Customers have ordered 7,350 737 MAX airplanes to date. Boeing delivered nearly 2,500 as of September 2026.

The 737 MAX family continues to offer airlines a range of options tailored to their network and fleet needs. The 737-10 joins the 737-7, which was certified earlier this year, and the 737-8 and 737-9 in providing operators with efficient, flexible single-aisle solutions.

Other 737 MAX family members offer other unique capabilities:

• The 737-7 typically seats 135-160 passengers in a two-class configuration and offers a range of up to 3,800 nautical miles (7,040 km). The airplane is designed for exceptional performance for operators flying out of airports at high altitudes and in hot climates. The FAA certified the 737-7 earlier this year.
• The 737-8 seats 160-180 passengers with a range of up to 3,500 nautical miles (6,480 km), and can profitably serve almost any short and medium-haul market.
• The 737-9 has three more seating rows than the 737-8 and serves 175-195 passengers with a range of up to 3,300 nautical miles (6,110 km).

The 737-10, the largest in the family, typically seats 185-210 passengers with a range of up to 3,100 nautical miles (5,740 km). Technological advancements also result in a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emission and fuel use. It also provides more range than competitors without auxiliary fuel tanks and delivers the lowest seat cost in its category.

• The 737-10 represents more than 30 percent of the 737 MAX program’s current order book.
• Boeing has received 1,555 orders from more than 30 customers as operators seek greater capacity and efficiency.

By Jeff Hidalgo