The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday that it would extend for another three years an authorization program that allows Boeing to perform some inspection and repair approval tasks on its behalf, citing improvements in quality and safety.

The program, called Organization Designation Authorization (ODA), allows an independent department within Boeing to perform FAA-authorized tasks, such as aircraft inspections and repair approvals.

Boeing's quality and safety measures have been severely criticized and highly concerned since the incident in January 2024 when a door panel of a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 aircraft loosened during flight and four key bolts were missing.

As early as May 2022, the FAA only agreed to renew Boeing's ODA for three years, rather than the five years Boeing requested, to ensure that the company could implement necessary improvements.

The FAA said this week that it had closely monitored specific evaluation criteria and seen improvements in many aspects before making the renewal decision, adding that it would "continue to closely monitor Boeing's performance" during this renewal period.

Boeing responded that it will continue to "work under the strict and meticulous supervision of the FAA" and has strengthened the ODA system in accordance with the requirements of the FAA in the past three years, and will continue to improve in the future. In addition, Boeing did not request a specific deadline when applying for renewal this time.

It is worth mentioning that Maria Cantwell, a Democratic senator from Washington State, told Reuters last month that the FAA should decide whether to extend the plan after resolving key issues.

After the Alaska Airlines accident, FAA Acting Administrator Mike Whitaker ordered Boeing to promote a safety and quality improvement plan in February 2024, and admitted that past supervision was "too laissez-faire." U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in March 2024 that Boeing needs to be subject to strict supervision.

After the incident, the FAA imposed an unprecedented monthly cap of 38 on Boeing 737 MAX production, which has not been lifted to date.

Currently, the FAA continues to personally inspect all 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner aircraft, and the airworthiness certificates of individual aircraft are issued by the FAA rather than Boeing.

In addition, after two fatal 737 MAX air crashes between 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people and caused the model to be grounded for 20 months, the US Congress passed a reform bill in December 2020 to strengthen the FAA's certification procedures for new aircraft.

According to a report from the Office of Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation, FAA officials had internally recommended in 2023 to resume authorizing Boeing's ODA unit to issue final airworthiness certificates for the 737 and 787, but before the top management approved it, the Alaska Airlines accident occurred, causing the plan to be suspended.