Boeing still needs FAA approval for more 777-9 flight tests: CEO

The FAA has said it will not certificate the 777-9 until approving a redesigned engine seal.
Boeing confirms it does not yet have approvals needed to complete large portions of the 777-9’s flight-test programme, but says it remains on track to begin delivering the long-delayed widebody jet next year.

“We… still need approval to begin the balance of the flight test programme, including ETOPS testing,” chief executive Kelly Ortberg said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on 27 October.

ETOPS is the extended-range twin-engine operations approval that customers need to operate flights traversing vast ocean or polar stretches.

Ortberg says Boeing has been receiving “some incremental authorisations for additional flight testing from the FAA”, but adds, “We still have these big flight tests yet ahead of us”.

“We continue to expect first delivery in 2027,” he says.

The comments come as Boeing and the 777-9’s engine supplier GE Aerospace work to overcome a hurdle posed by the mid-seal inside GE9X turbofans. That seal proved less durable than expected, prompting GE to redesign the component. The engine maker says it aims for the FAA to approve the redesign before year-end.

An FAA official made clear on 20 October that the agency will not issue the 777-9’s type certificate until first certificating the mid-seal design change. The agency’s chief Bryan Bedford added of the 777-9 that same day, “Flight testing and especially ETOPS isn’t going to get where it needs to be without resolving the seal issue”.

Ortberg did not mention the GE9X mid-seal during Boeing’s 27 October earnings call. The company declines to elaborate on the seal’s impact on flight testing.

It says in a 27 October securities filing that it expects “to receive approval on the final phases” of the 777-9’s flight-test programme before year-end.

Boeing is now producing roughly one 777-9 monthly. It expects to maintain that pace through most of 2027 and to deliver 10-15 777-9s next year, says chief financial officer Jay Malave.

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