The FAA has renewed Boeing’s authority to self-certify aircraft designs and production processes, extending the company’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) for another three years — even as the plane maker has just escaped criminal charges (despite confessing).
The FAA’s move, announced without fanfare when it was granted earlier in May, allows Boeing to return to performing critical certification tasks on behalf of the agency. The ODA program delegates regulatory responsibilities to manufacturers, streamlining oversight while preserving accountability through FAA supervision. Boeing engineers, known as authorized representatives, can approve design and production changes under FAA authority.
The FAA framed the renewal as contingent on “strict conditions and increased oversight.” The agency claims it will embed more inspectors within Boeing’s operations, require expanded training for Boeing’s self-certification staff, and audit delegated functions more. Some important pieces of context:
- Self-certification dates to 1956. The practice was not part of a deregulatory push. It’s a system that has worked remarkably well. It also isn’t unique to the United States.
- The FAA has approximately 400 engineers to work on aircraft certification. Boeing has around 40,000 engineers.
- The FAA cannot do all of the work themselves – and we wouldn’t want to shift the best engineering minds away from creating product to oversight.
It was inevitable that Boeing’s authority would be returned. The question is whether they can be a great company, and one that’s primarily an engineering company again (and whether they actually intend to be one).
Boeing changed after merging with McDonnell Douglas. It underwent a transformation to become a financial engineering company. As former CEO Harry Stonecipher (who had been CEO of McDonnell Douglas) put it,
When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent, so that it’s run like a business rather than a great engineering firm.
Boeing’s biggest customer is the federal government, not private industry. The federal government subsidizes Boeing’s foreign sales through the Export-Import Bank (in fact, Boeing has historically been the largest beneficiary of this government program).
The company is heavily regulated, and it continues chasing tax subsidies. It moved its headquarters away from its manufacturing to move to Chicago where it received significant government benefits. And as those expired it moved to the D.C. area, because their fates have been intertwined with regulators in Washington. This served to separate leadership from product.
Boeing is said to sacrifice quality and safety for financial gain, but they haven’t actually gained. Boeing shares are at 2017 levels, and we’ve had 20% inflation since then.
In most cases share price represents the discounted value of expected future cash flows, so long-term value is reflected in price. Boeing would have been rewarded by delivering quality products that airlines want to buy more than competitor offerings, and that airlines are willing to pay a premium for.
Instead they have products they need to discount heavily in order to gain orders. And they have faced limits on their production because of questions over their quality process. Share price still lags even with this unshackling by the government!
Shocked? All 3rd world countries ruled by a wannabe fascist act this way.
Yup, this entire Boeing situation is really upsetting. The company plead guilty, then the DOJ dismissed the criminal fraud charges… the families of those 737 Max crashes absolutely should object to all of this. The administration is letting Boeing off the hook here. Sure, supposedly they pay $1.1 billion (including, $445 for the victims), which is a start, but the systemic issues that lead to these disasters is being ‘brushed under the rug.’ Not to mention the tactics they used to stifle internal concerns (whistleblowers, anyone?) Then again, most folks now know what happened; and, the reputational damage is there. Any more doors fall off lately (Alaska)? Well, it’s good for Airbus, I guess, but sheesh, what preventable loss for a once-great American company. *deep sigh*
So, the fox killed the chickens in the hen house, and still the fox is allowed to guard the hen house?
All sorts of fraudsters and other criminals who have committed worse offenses than Boeing are being pardoned as we speak. So, no surprise here.
whether it is right or not, Boeing was and never will be allowed to fail because of its importance to the US economy as the single largest manufacturer.
The FAA simply cannot do the self-certification that Boeing has done.
All Boeing has had to do is say they were wrong, put in place measures to change what went wrong, and they will be free to return to running their business with relatively little government interference.
They are probably 2/3 of the way back to “business as normal” and likely will not repeat the mistakes that have not only cost lives but cost Boeing tens of billions of dollars in revenue and profits.
Boeing’s motive to get it right and run a safe operation is just as much if not more about Boeing’s bottom line which has been badly bruised over the past 7 years.
Agreed with Kimmea and others. The FAA should spend the money (charged back to Boeing, of course) and put their inspectors on site. Boeing should move their engineers back to Seattle and Charleston. Open the FAA inspector’s and Boeing engineer’s office doors to those who actually put the jets together and put them in the same room to fix an issue rather than dictate from afar. Only then will “If it ain’t Boeing…I ain’t going” will come back and “If it’s a MAX, I ain’t a pax.” be dropped from the customer/passenger’s lexicon.
“ All Boeing has had to do is say they were wrong.”
@Tim Dunn – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. It’s like a murderer promising to never murder again if you let them loose.
And, yes I do see a parallel between Boeing and murderers. They were intentional in cutting corners and people died. If I did that I’d lose my license or be placed under close supervision.
So if I commit fraud, I go to jail. Which Boeing executive went to jail for this…….?
@Ray
Move to Haiti. That is about as third world as it gets and then compare it to the US. Still missing mumbling, stumbling, fumbling Joe I see. Jimmy Carter looking down from heaven and thanking all of you that took the monkey off his back.
@Ray
Good.
It’s only going to get worse for people like you.
“Boeing shares are at 2017 levels, and we’ve had 20% inflation since then.”
Actually we have had more than 30% inflation since then using the CPI as the basis (April 2017 = 244.524, April 2025 = 320.795).
@Tim Dunn — I’ve heard those arguments before: ‘We can’t let this business fail, it’s critical to national security…’ Ok, well, let’s reform it, then. I know, I know, that takes ‘real work’ and isn’t purely ‘profitable,’ so it probably won’t get done under this current regime. Alright, well, when the adults are back in-charge, add this to the long list of things that need fixing. Also, why should Boeing be the only manufacturer? Like, these mergers (MD, specifically) have not been good for aviation. Would be nice to see more competition, even in this space.
Because that is the kind of world we have created for ourselves. We’ll have to wait for hundreds more tombstones of the next two Boeing airliners to crash before the FAA will again for a short while behave responsibly. And thanks again to the felon-in-chief.
@Derek
Of course those pilots made no mistakes. For instance the Ethiopian crew never reduced power from takeoff thrust. Don’t know about you, but I’m not flying on Lion Air or Ethiopian.
@Coffee Please, I am with you on this.
@coffee was it the pilot’s fault when the door plug blew out on the Alaska flight? Was it the pilots fault when Boeing had all the issues with certifying the 787s? Was it the pilot’s fault when the entire MAX fleet was grounded?
Folks who think any organization will self-regulate and do so to the interest of safety and consumers have not been paying any attention to history.
No surprises here: Less regulation is EXACTLY what people voted for.
Very American-based culture: to race to the bottom. Airlines offering terrible service with Gov’t subsidies and the race to see which MAX will fly to the bottom, literally…
@Parker. My comments were directed to the MAX, not the door. There is plenty of information out there about the two pilot crews of those MAX jets that crashed. Those incidents aren’t all on Boeing. Read up.
FAA probably does not have qualified individuals to do what needs to be done.
So self certification is back.
Honestly, the same social media and tabloid news keep people focused on Boeing. The max issue was bad, but no worse than the comet, DC-10, and even the A300. Growing up a 737 nosedived into a park down the street, then another in Pittsburgh. It was a faulty rudder actuator but back then we all still believed that Boeing still built safe planes, what happened? Boeing is certainly changed and likely they realize the implications of shortfalls given the apparent years and years of bad publicity at stake. Most pilots will still tell you in an aerodynamic emergency they would want Boeing and that ensures they will get ordered by airlines and as part of a trillion dollar budget by our military. The door came off, the plane landed safely. The 787 whistle was blown, on a plane that continues to fly safely all day long. These planes are only different in price. The Max 7/10 delay is hurting so many international airlines.
@Kevin: “Very American-based culture: to race to the bottom.”
I have two words in reply: British Airways.
I may be alone here, but I think Boeing is taking a huge risk by doing their own certifications. Another crash in the near term, even if due to an ambiguous cause, and Boeing as a single company won’t recover. It’s not just it’s civilian airliner business that is questioned, but also the quality of its space and defense work.
I’d have quite like to have self certified my school and university exams. Straight As anyone?