Boeing has announced that it will suspend production of the 737 MAX starting in January as it waits for the embattled plane to be recertified to return to service.
The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March after two fatal crashes — a Lion Air jet into the Java Sea in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines plane near Addis Ababa in March — killed 346 people. But getting the plane back in the air has proven immensely difficult for Boeing, causing major financial and reputational issues for the company.
"Throughout the grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing has continued to build new airplanes and there are now approximately 400 airplanes in storage," Boeing said in a statement. "We have previously stated that we would continually evaluate our production plans should the MAX grounding continue longer than we expected. As a result of this ongoing evaluation, we have decided to prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft and temporarily suspend production on the 737 program beginning next month."
