FAA grants Boeing exemption for 35 777 freighters past 2028 emissions rules

The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to let Boeing sell 35 more 777 Freighters beyond the point at which tighter emissions limits begin applying to new aircraft.

The approval is dated 15 September and follows a request Boeing lodged with the regulator last December. Under the terms, the exemption runs until the end of 2030.

Boeing needed the relief because the current 777F does not satisfy the requirements, and because the replacement model, the 777-8F, is running late and will not be available when the standards start on 1 January 2028. The company told the regulator it expects to finish roughly two 777Fs a month, a rate at which the 35 aircraft would be completed about 18 months into 2028.

In its application, Boeing framed the request as serving the public interest ahead of the 777-8F's entry into service, saying the exemption would support jobs, the air freight sector and the wider US economy.

The FAA accepted that argument, stating that the exemption preserves the economic and operational benefits the 777F provides to Boeing, the aviation industry and the American public, and pointing to Boeing's economic analysis of the value of a healthy freighter market.

The 777X programme as a whole is several years behind its original schedule. Boeing now expects to hand over the first member of the family, the 777-9 passenger variant, next year, with the 777-8F following about two years later.

The emissions standards at issue were drawn up by the FAA in 2024. Boeing's other freighter, the 767-300F, is already outside their scope; Congress granted that relief for five years, through 2032, as part of the agency's 2024 reauthorisation legislation.