Boeing 777X: US FAA will not certify the new plane model before 2023

Boeing is aiming to officially fly its 777X model soon, but it hit a snag as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration did not issue permission for it to move forward for its certification. Without the approval, it is obviously impossible for the Boeing 777X to be certified and allowed to travel for commercial use.

Reuters reported that the FAA sent a letter to Boeing last month, and it was to inform the plane maker that it may have to add more test flights before the agency could approve it for certification. It was added that with the needed requirements, it may take two more years before the FAA could issue its approval. This means that Boeing will have to wait until 2023 before it can take another step for Boeing 777X to be sold and used.

FAA’s rejection of TIA request

In a letter that was sent to Boeing last month, it was said that the FAA listed a number of issues as to why it is rejecting the request for the issuance of a Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) Readiness. This letter was only made public recently and also mentioned the plane maker’s lack of data and preliminary safety assessment for the administration to review.

"The aircraft is not yet ready for TIA," the FAA stated in the letter. “We decline to approve a phased TIA of limited scope with a small number of certification flight test plans. “The FAA will not approve any aircraft unless it meets our safety and certification standards."

It was said that Boeing has been developing the 777X since 2013, and it is an updated version of the Boeing 777 model. This new aircraft has been described to have a wider body and originally expected to be available for airline use in 2020. Apparently, it will take more time than the target date.

Is the FAA stricter to Boeing than usual?

It is not just the FAA, but it was said that the European regulators will also subject the Boeing 777X to extra scrutiny due to the deadly crashes that led to the almost 2-year grounding of the 737 Max planes since 2019.

If approved, the 777X will be the very first jet to be certified since the errors in the 737 Max were detected. It can be recalled that 346 people have lost their lives in two MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, where the incidents happened just five months apart.

Then again, The Seattle Times reported that an FAA official said that the crashes had nothing to do with the rejection of 777X’s certification. It was explained that even if those did not happen, the number of serious issues that this new model has is enough to merit rigorous regulatory attention.