Boeing shares fell about 6 percent on Monday, their worst session in nearly a year and a half, after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would hold certification of the 737 MAX 10 until a newly disclosed flight-management software issue is shown not to be a safety-of-flight concern.
The glitch sits in flight-management computer software versions 14 and 14.1, supplied by GE Aerospace. In a specific missed-approach or go-around case, it can block pilots from automated flight guidance and raise workload. Boeing told operators over the weekend and said it is writing a fix. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the MAX 7, which uses an earlier software load, is already certified. The MAX 10 is the stretched workhorse of the 737 family and accounts for roughly 31 percent of undelivered 737 orders. Customers including Alaska Airlines have been waiting on a calendar Boeing had recently described as coming very soon.
This is not a new MAX crisis in miniature. It is a delivery-slot problem dressed as a software bulletin. Every month the MAX 10 stays on the ground on paper, Airbus keeps the single-aisle production argument, and airlines that staffed for 2027 arrivals have to keep older metal in the air. Some carriers have already signaled they would rather fly the older software than wait. GE Aerospace stock slipped with Boeing, a reminder that the supply chain shares the certification clock even when the airframe maker takes the headline.
The second-order cost shows up in Boeing's other delayed program, the 777X, which has its own engine-related slip that could run into 2027. A company that needs cash from the 737 line to fund the widebody cannot afford another deadline that becomes a year. The FAA is doing what a post-2019 regulator is paid to do: stop the clock. The market is pricing the clock, not the software.
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