Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Boeing planning to activate North Line with 737-8s/9s in advance of MAX 10 certification
By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 20, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing is preparing to activate its North Line for 737 production by mid-year, with 737-8s and 737-9s first to be assembled as a prelude to its intended purpose: assembling the long-delayed 737-10.
Boeing has been informally asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) a series of “what if” questions in advance of a formal request to activate the North Line. This is the first time the 737 will be assembled away from its Renton (WA) facility, which has served as its home since the original model program more than 50 years ago.
This is important because the North Line is brand new, it needs FAA certification, and the MAX 10 is new (only a couple have been built at Renton), pending certification. Employees who will be assigned to the North Line will be a mix of Renton transfers, new hires, and Everett incumbents. The latter has never built a 737.
Boeing 787 bay at the Everett factory in 2023. Boeing was engaged in reworking following discovery of a production flaw. Credit: Leeham News.
Gaining FAA approval to build the 737-8/9 on the North Line will smooth production certification and enable employees without 737 production experience to gain some before the MAX 10 is added to the line. While Boeing all along said the North Line is intended for the MAX 10, LNA confirmed that it is capable of assembling the MAX 8, 9, and 10.
Additionally, since the MAX 10 (and the smallest family member, the MAX 7) remain uncertified pending changes that must be made as a result of the overall 737 MAX crisis revelations, Boeing wants to avoid building up an inventory of MAX 10s that would require changes mandated by the FAA.
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The company wants to begin production as early as May or June. Earlier, Boeing previously said activating the line may not occur until the end of the year, awaiting certification of the 737-10. More recently, CEO Kelly Ortberg identified mid-year as the activation target date. A formal request to the FAA may come as early as March.
Ahead of its year-end 2025 earnings call and in its quiet period, Boeing declined to comment.
Open Forum: Week of Jan. 19
Jan. 12, 2026: LNA’s Comments Open Forum allows Readers opportunities to comment about any post (note, we said “Post”, not any “Topic”). All comments will be held for review and Moderation per our new policy. The Open Forum enables Readers to Comment on paywall articles (to the extent the paywall preview is open to all readers).
Maintain civility and follow Reader Comment rules.
A new Open Forum will be posted weekly.
Outlook 2026: ATR narrows its focus as the turboprop market evolves
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By Tom Batchelor
Jan. 19, 2026, © Leeham News: Having announced it was abandoning near-term development plans for a Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) variant 12 months ago, ATR begins 2026 confident about its position within the turboprop market and with a deeper focus on hybrid technology.
As the only player in this corner of the regional aircraft segment following the withdrawal of De Havilland Aircraft and the Q400 (now the Dash 8-400) from production, ATR has pinned its hopes on next-generation propulsion while also working with Pratt & Whitney Canada to improve the thermal efficiency of the latest-generation PW127XT engine, which powers both the ATR 42-600 and 72-600 aircraft.
The PW127XT is already delivering significant benefits, including up to 20% lower maintenance costs, extended time on wing, and at least 3% improved fuel efficiency compared to previous models.
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 23. Preparing for Entry Into Service.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam
January 16, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We do a series about ideas on how the long development times for large airliners can be shortened. New projects talk about cutting development time and reaching certification and production faster than previous projects.
The series will discuss the typical development cycles for an FAA Part 25 aircraft, called a transport category aircraft, and what different ideas there are to reduce the development times.
We will use the Gantt plan in Figure 1 as a base for our discussions. We have looked at the production preparations and the challenges of the serial production phase. Now we look a the preparation work around entry into service for our new airliner.
Figure 1. A generic new Part 25 airliner development plan. Source: Leeham Co. Click to see better.
Dissecting Boeing’s 2025 orders and deliveries
By The Leeham News Team
Jan. 16, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing won more orders than Airbus last year. Airbus delivered more airplanes, given its higher production rates and Boeing’s long, slow path to recovery.
But a dissection of the numbers also shows positive results for Boeing.
Boeing 737 MAXes awaiting delivery at Boeing Field. Credit: Leeham News.
On top of Delta Air Lines’ breakthrough order for the 787-10, its first for any 787, United Airlines converted 56 787-9s to the 787-10. The 787-10’s seat-mile costs are the lowest in its class. If an airline doesn’t need the longer range of the Airbus A330-900, the A350-900, or the 787-9, the extra passenger and cargo capacity of the -10 is a winning combination.
The total twin-aisle passenger aircraft deliveries were 179 (91 Airbus A330 and A350, 88 Boeing 787s). It is far below the peak of 2015 (362), at the level of 2011 (179), and below the peak of the late 1990s cycle (227 in 1999). Boeing needs the 777-9 certification to reclaim its historical lead in twin-aisle passenger aircraft deliveries. Boeing handily dominates the twin-aisle order book.
Boeing, SPEEA reach agreement at Boeing Wichita
Jan. 15, 2026, (c) Leeham News: Boeing and SPEEA, the engineers and technicians union, reached an agreement tonight for the Boeing Wichita operation. This is the former Spirit AeroSystems plant that was merged into Boeing last month. The labor contract was open during Spirit’s last days, and negotiations were paused upon the merger and through the holidays.
This is the first test of contract negotiations and SPEEA under Boeing’s CEO, Kelly Ortberg. The primary SPEEA is with Boeing in the great Seattle area. This contract expires in October.
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COMAC struggled in 2025; 2026 won’t be much better
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By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 15, 2026, © Leeham News: COMAC had a rough year in 2025. It’s unlikely that this year will be much better.
COMAC is China’s state-owned commercial aerospace company. It builds the C909 regional jet (formerly known as the AVIC ARJ21; AVIC is now part of COMAC). The C909 is a Douglas DC-9-10 look-alike with GE CF-34 engines, the same powerplant that’s on the Mitsubishi CRJ and Embraer E1 E-Jets.
The C909 is not a particularly commercially competitive airplane to the CRJ or E1, but that wasn’t the point of the aircraft. The C909 is China’s truly first effort to establish a commercial jet airliner industry after a false start decades ago with the Y-10, a Boeing 707 clone. China developed turboprop airliners with limited success.
COMAC also builds the C919 mainline jet. The C919 is a competitor with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737-8. This jet is China’s next step in developing a commercial airliner industry. More than 1,000 orders have been placed. All but a handful are orders dictated by the central government to China’s airlines and lessors.
Nevertheless, an analysis of the backlog of the 125-240 seat single aisle sector gives the C919 about a 7% share. With China evolving eventually into the single largest global market, this captive market share is evolving into a force to be reckoned with.
COMAC hoped to deliver 75 C919s last year. Hurt by Western sanctions for China’s support of Russia in the Ukraine War and by trade sanctions imposed by the Trump and Biden administrations, COMAC reduced the delivery forecast to 25. In reality, C919 deliveries last year fell to about 13, the same as in 2024. COMAC outlined its production goals in March; they are unrealistic.
Boeing reports best airliner delivery year since 2018
By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing delivered 600 airliners last year, its best year since 2018—the last normal year before the 737 MAX grounding began in March 2020. In 2018, Boeing delivered 813 airliners.
The MAX grounding lasted 21 months. This was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in April 2020, lasting about two years. In October 2020, deliveries of most 787s were suspended due to a production flaw. From September to November in 2024, Boeing’s assembly workforce, the IAM 751, went on strike for 53 days, halting all deliveries.
Spirit Aero problems affected A350 deliveries
By the Leeham News Team
Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. Credit: Leeham News.
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Deliveries for the Airbus A350 fell last year compared with 2024, reflecting supply chain challenges.
Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said, “The ‘stagnation’ of A350 deliveries is not a lack of demand. There is a center section of the A350 fuselage that is being built by a company formerly known as Spirit Aerosystems. They ran into trouble. They were the pacing item.”
Airbus acquired Spirit’s Airbus business when the company merged with Boeing in December. “Now that we have regained, let’s say, control of that particular center fuselage piece on section 15 of the A350, you will see the A350 continue its ramp up,” Scherer said during the annual Airbus media briefing of its annual orders and deliveries results.
Dissecting the results reveals:
The Abundance Problem: Why the FAA Has Spent 40 Years Modernizing Air Traffic Control—and Still Isn’t Done
By Vincent E. Bianco III
FAA Veteran and Senior Aviation Safety Consultant
Guest Column
Credit: Federal Aviation Administration.
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Presidential administrations and Congresses dating to the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 
1957 have failed to adequately fund the agency and modernize the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. An insider examines why.—Editor.
Introduction: A Crisis of Process Over Progress
In their book Abundance: What America Gets Wrong About Capitalism and What We Can Do to Fix It, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe a phenomenon in which institutions become paralyzed by process—where layers of well-intentioned rules accumulate, each logical in isolation, but together quietly stifling the very progress they intend to nurture.
This scenario is not theoretical for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); it is a reality for anyone involved in its modernization programs. The FAA’s experience over the past four decades serves as a case study in how process can overwhelm purpose.