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Production of Boeing’s 737 MAX has fallen sharply in recent weeks as U.S. regulators tighten controls at factories and workers slow down the assembly line outside Seattle to complete pending work, industry sources told Reuters. industry.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a limit of 38 planes per month after an explosion on a 737 MAX in January, attributed to an assembly error. But the production rate fluctuates well below this level and fell to single digits in late March, they said.

Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West said last month he was taking comprehensive steps to strengthen quality and build trust, including reducing the number of so-called trips or backlogs, as the FAA ramps up audits.

The FAA is “deeply involved and undertaking a tougher audit than any we’ve ever gone through before,” West said at a Bank of America meeting.

Boeing also says it has worked to reduce the amount of so-called “roaming work,” that is, airplanes moving down the line with jobs pending repair from previous work stations. The effect is to slow down global production and, in turn, deliveries.

Aircraft manufacturers charge for their aircraft at the time of delivery, but the underlying production pace dictates the pulse of an industrial system that feeds thousands of aerospace suppliers around the world.

Boeing’s production slowdown is also expected to impact the airline industry, which will cut flights from its schedule or extend existing aircraft leases to meet demand.

Traditionally, production and deliveries went hand in hand, but the grounding of the MAX in 2019 and 2020 and the disruptions caused by the pandemic created a reserve of surplus aircraft that means it is now more difficult to deduce the production rate from deliveries .

Rob Morris, global director of consulting at Cirium Ascend, says Boeing flew 13 MAXs in March, following 11 in February. According to Cirium data, this rate peaked at 38 per month in mid-2023.

Airbus takes advantage

Airbus, by contrast, flew an average of 46 a month of its competing A320neos in the first quarter, Morris detailed.

Boeing’s European rival has its own supply constraints and is producing about 50 A320neo family planes a month, down from the 58 initially planned earlier this year, according to industry sources.

It also faces a shortage of maintenance capacity for some engines, leaving planes down for months once in service.

But Boeing has had to sharply slow production to satisfy FAA inspectors that its industrial operations are running smoothly, so Airbus has widened its comfortable lead in the market for the best-selling category of single-aisle aircraft.