WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a decade after Boeing unveiled its largest 737 Max jet, the company has cleared a major hurdle in its effort to bring the plane to airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration approved the Max 10 for passenger service Tuesday, ending years of delays.

The 737 Max 10’s certification represents another milestone in Boeing’s efforts to restore its reputation and financial footing after years of safety, quality and production challenges. With production approved, the aircraft can now be sold to domestic and foreign carriers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the certification followed “extensive safety reviews,” including thousands of hours of test flights, and called it a major win for American manufacturing.

“To think that it took us almost 10 years to get here. We all probably had a little less gray hair 10 years ago,” Duffy said during a visit to Boeing’s manufacturing plant Tuesday in Everett, Washington.

The Max 10 is an important piece of the company’s effort to regain ground in the narrow-body market. For airlines, the larger plane offers a way to carry more passengers on a single flight, potentially lowering costs per seat. For travelers, it could eventually mean more seats on popular routes, though the impact on fares will depend on how airlines deploy the planes and how much competition they face.

Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said during Duffy’s visit that the certification “clears the path to deliver an airplane that will set a new standard in commercial aviation.” The Max 10 will typically seat 185-210 passengers, according to Boeing, compared with 175-195 on the Max 9 and 160-180 on the Max 8.

“Today is a very, very special day. It caps years of hard work and dedication by many,” Pope said. “It marks another major milestone in our recovery, and it unlocks a key to our future growth.”

The company expects to begin deliveries in 2027.

The single-aisle jet was introduced at the Paris air show in 2017 to help Boeing compete with rival Airbus. But technical and regulatory hurdles repeatedly delayed certification.

Boeing’s struggles have been particularly acute since two deadly crashes involving the smaller Max 8 killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019 off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. In 2024, a panel flew off of an Alaska Airlines Max 9 in midair, renewing scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing and safety practices.

The delays have held up a key part of Boeing’s business. More than 30 customers worldwide have ordered 1,555 Max 10s that Boeing has yet to deliver, accounting for more than 30% of its total 737 Max backlog.

Major customers include United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Ryanair. Alaska Airlines joined that list in January, ordering 105 Max 10s, with options for 35 more.

The Max 10 is intended to compete with Airbus’s A321neo model family, which entered service in 2017. The largest A321neo can carry more passengers and fly farther without refueling than the Max 10.

Still, Boeing designed the Max 10 to carry more passengers while burning less fuel than older aircraft — a potentially attractive combination for airlines facing soaring jet fuel costs amid the U.S. war with Iran. Those rising costs have put added pressure on airlines to control expenses.

Certification means the FAA has determined that the Max 10’s design meets safety standards, following engineering reviews and flight testing. But Boeing must continue to show it can consistently build the aircraft to the approved design, and each plane must be cleared before it can fly passengers.

The Max 10’s certification completes the lineup of four 737 Max models. The FAA cleared the Max 7 for airline operations in August.

Pope on Tuesday described the certification of both the Max 7 and Max 10 in the same year as a sign of the company’s resilience.

In the wake of the fatal Max 8 crashes, the FAA overhauled how it certifies Boeing aircraft. But over the past 18 months, the agency has gradually eased some of its restrictions on the company, increasing the limit on how many planes Boeing can produce. In July, the FAA also said Boeing could once again issue airworthiness certificates for its 737 Max and 787 planes at the end of production, allowing the company to take back some responsibility for determining whether finished aircraft are ready to fly.

MIAMI (AP) — Florida is set Tuesday to carry out its 18th execution of the year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.

William Reaves, 77, was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder for the 1986 shooting of Indian River County Deputy Richard Raczkowski. He would become Florida’s eighth prisoner over the age of 70 to be executed this year, which has highlighted the nation’s aging death-row population and underscored how Florida has outpaced the rest of the country in executions.

Reaves was set to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke.

Last year, Florida set a state record with 19 executions in a single year. Another execution is scheduled for November, which would tie that mark if both are carried out as planned.

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said previously that his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.

Fought with a deputy after dropping a gun

According to court records, Raczkowski responded to a 911 call at a Vero Beach convenience store in September 1986. Reaves acknowledged that he had placed the call at a payphone outside the store.

While Raczkowski and Reaves spoke, a gun fell out of Reaves’ shorts, officials said. The men struggled over the firearm and Reaves eventually regained control over it. Investigators said the deputy attempted to run away before Reaves shot him four times. The deputy later died from his wounds.

Reaves was initially convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction because of a conflict of interest with the prosecutor and ordered a new trial. Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death a second time in 1992, and subsequent appeals have been unsuccessful.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Reaves’ final appeals last week.

One issue raised by his attorneys was Florida’s method of execution. All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

The court has previously upheld this lethal injection protocol against similar challenges. It differs from the single-drug injection used by states like Tennessee, where death row inmate Christa Pike was rushed to the hospital last month after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

Defense attorneys also argued that the jurors who recommended the death penalty for Reaves were never told that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rated Reaves, an Army veteran, as 100% disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder, which was caused by his service in the Vietnam War. More than 100 veterans sent DeSantis a letter on Monday asking him to stop the execution.

Final appeals for Reaves were still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Florida is close to matching last year’s record-setting numbers

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Besides leading all other states last year, Florida has carried out more than half the 31 total executions in the U.S. so far this year. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

Jesse Guardado, 64, is next scheduled to die by injection in Florida on Nov. 5. He was convicted of robbing and killing a woman in order to buy drugs in 2004.