Boeing CEO among industry bosses to convene for certification reform talks

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is among several aerospace bosses who will convene to discuss certification reform with US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

According to Bloomberg, Ortberg and other industry leaders, including RTX’s Christopher Calio and GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp will meet on October 15, 2026, in Savannah, Georgia.

At the meeting those gathered will look at how the certification process involving aircraft, parts and components could be streamlined.

Over the past two years, Secretary Duffy and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been vocal about the need to modernize the certification process.

AirbusAccording to Bloomberg, the aerospace chiefs will be quizzed about what can be done to make the process more efficient.

In a statement to the news outlet the Department of Transportation (DoT) said both Duffy and the FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford have previously stated that certification reform is an “opportunity to both enhance safety for the flying public and maintain America’s global aerospace competitiveness”.

“If we can’t modernize the process, safety innovation will lag and adversaries like China will step in to fill the void,” a spokesperson for the DoT said.

Boeing certification delays

Few companies have been more affected by certification delays over the past decade than Boeing.

Two fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes between 2018 and 2019 and a door plug incident on an Alaska Airlines flight in 2025, severely hampered production rates.

On August 3, 2026, Boeing announced that the 737 MAX 7 had secured type certification from the FAA, after the US planemaker and Southwest Airlines first launched the jet 13 years before.

Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 was also expected to be certified by the end of September 2026 following years of delays, but a software problem last month temporarily paused the process.

Cabin seating is another area of aviation increasingly bogged down by certification delays, as airlines adopt more elaborate premium designs.

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