FAA halts production expansion on Boeing’s Max jets

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said it would not allow Boeing Co.
BA,
+1.24%
to expand production of its Max jets, following a mid-flight blowout on a flight that led to the grounding of dozens of those planes. The agency also said it approved a “thorough inspection and maintenance process” required for each of the grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts before they could return to service. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement. “However, let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing. We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.” Shares of Boeing were down 1.9% after hours.