A key step in the return to service of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX could take place as soon as Monday.
Boeing’s best-selling plane has been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes killed 346 people.
A certification flight test, which is expected to last three days, is likely to take place starting as early as Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration would then need to approve new pilot training procedures and complete other steps and would not likely approve the plane’s ungrounding until September, the sources said.
The FAA said on Friday that “the team is making progress toward FAA certification flights in the near future. The FAA is reviewing Boeing’s documentation to determine whether the company has met the criteria to move to the next stage of evaluation. We will conduct the certification flights only after we are satisfied with that data.”