By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it approved a waiver of airplane emissions rules to allow Boeing to sell another 35 777F freighters after 2028.
The waiver will allow Boeing to sell the planes for another three years after new emissions rules take effect on January 1, 2028, which would have barred the sale of the plane. Boeing in December 2025 had requested approval, citing strong customer demand and a delay in the next-generation plane’s certification.
The 777F is the only large widebody freighter in production, and its next-generation replacement, the 777-8F, is not expected to enter service until approximately 2029. Without the waiver, Boeing would have faced a gap in freighter production that it says could have cost more than $15 billion in U.S. exports.
The FAA said it was giving Boeing “flexibility and accommodating uncertainty in the certification timeline of the replacement dedicated freighter airplane, the 777-8F.”
BIDEN-ERA EMISSIONS RULES
Under former President Joe Biden, the FAA in February 2024 issued final rules adopting international standards to reduce carbon pollution from most large airplanes flying in U.S. airspace, which would bar 777F sales beginning in 2028.
The rules do not apply to airplanes in service before that date.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The planemaker said earlier that each export of a 777F aircraft to a foreign customer, at list price, contributes $440 million to a positive U.S. trade balance. It said that more than $15 billion in U.S. exports could be lost, without the exemption.
The company has said it expects to deliver the first 777-8F approximately two years after the first delivery of the 777-9, which is currently targeted for 2027.
Boeing said the 777F is the most fuel-efficient airplane for the global freight market and the only large widebody freighter in production.
In 2024, Congress passed legislation allowing Boeing to continue to produce its 767 freighter for another five years through 2033 in the United States, exempting it from the FAA efficiency rules taking effect in 2028.
The FAA said previously that civil aircraft were responsible for 9% of domestic transportation emissions and 2% of total U.S. carbon pollution. Under Biden, the U.S. unveiled a climate action plan that aimed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. aviation sector by 2050.
The FAA said the 35 airplanes could increase freighter operations by approximately 2% and raise fuel burn by approximately 8% relative to global freighter operations in 2024.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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