Boeing wins support in push to extend MAX certification timetable

Boeing won support Wednesday from a Republican senator and a major customer in its bid to convince the US Congress to extend the deadline to win certification of two new 737 MAX variants. The US planemaker faces a late December deadline for the FAA to certify the MAX 7 and MAX 10. After that date, all planes must have modern cockpit alerting systems to be certified by the FAA, which would mean significant delays for the new MAX aircrafts' deployment, unless Congress grants a waiver to extend the deadline. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Reuters he supports attaching a MAX deadline waiver to a spending bill or another measure before Congress. "We're going to fight as hard as we can to get Boeing the opportunity to prove that the plane works and it does work," Graham said on the sidelines of an event. The requirements were approved by Congress in late 2020 as part of FAA certification reforms after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the bestselling plane's 20-month grounding. Earlier Wednesday, United Airlines CE Scott Kirby also backed the extension, saying it makes sense to have a common 737 alerting system. "It's a right safety outcome," Kirby told CNBC. "Changing the cockpit is a bad safety outcome." United in 2017 ordered 100 MAX 10s. Without an extension United would convert some orders to MAX 8 and 9s, Kirby said, "and we're going to buy more Airbus 321 airplanes," which would impact Boeing's US workers.<br/>