The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday certified Boeing’s largest Max variant, the 737 Max 10, after years of manufacturing and regulatory hurdles.

The FAA’s decision clears the way for Boeing to begin delivering the Max 10 to customers and brings airlines one step closer to flying passengers on board the newest aircraft. It is also a milestone for Boeing’s certification programs that stalled while the plane-maker worked to recover from several tumultuous years.

In August, the FAA greenlit the Max 7, Boeing’s smallest Max variant. Boeing is separately still working to certify its 777X family, which includes two passenger aircraft and a freighter.

On Tuesday, the FAA issued an amended type certificate for the Max 10, which confirms that the plane complies with all design and safety requirements, and an updated Production Limitation Record, which authorizes Boeing to begin producing the new aircraft.

“The FAA’s decision follows a thorough review of the aircraft’s design and safety requirements,” FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement Tuesday.

“We will continue to hold Boeing to the highest safety standards as the company begins production of the 737 Max-10.”

Before granting certification, the FAA said Tuesday, it required Boeing to incorporate “key improvements” to address safety legislation passed after two fatal 737 Max crashes, including updating the aircraft’s flight control system with an enhanced angle-of-attack sensor.

That sensor was at the center of the two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people. In those cases, an erroneous read from the sensor triggered a new software system, which repeatedly pushed the plane’s nose down and caused the pilots to lose control.

The FAA required similar “key improvements” before certifying the Max 7 earlier this year. Those improvements included a fix to the aircraft’s engine anti-ice system. Boeing finalized design changes for the engine anti-ice system and the enhanced angle-of-attack sensor earlier this year, the plane-maker told reporters at a briefing in July.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy celebrated the certification Tuesday as a “major win for American manufacturing and our nation’s status as a global aviation powerhouse.”

“After extensive safety reviews — including thousands of hours of test flights — the team at the FAA is ready to approve this critical aircraft for sale,” Duffy said in a statement.

With nearly 1,500 orders, the Max 10 accounted for the second highest number of orders in the Max family as of this summer, Boeing said in a press briefing ahead of the Farnborough Airshow. The plane-maker had just over 200 orders for the Max 7.

The Max 10 will carry more passengers than any other Max variant, with room for up to 210 seats, but will fly shorter distances, with a range up to 3,100 nautical miles. The Max 7, on the other end of the spectrum, carries up to 160 passengers and travels up to 3,800 nautical miles.

The Max 10 will also be able to carry the most of any Max variant, with a maximum takeoff weight of 197,900 pounds, more than 3,200 pounds greater than the next-largest Max model, the 9.

Boeing will assemble the Max 10 in Renton and on its newest Max assembly line in Everett. Because the Everett line is larger than Boeing’s three other Max lines, it can hold more Max 10s. While Renton lines would need to stagger Max 10s between other, smaller variants, the Everett line could be filled entirely with Max 10s, nose to tail.

The Max 10 certification was briefly thrown into question last month while the FAA reviewed a software glitch to determine if it posed a safety concern. The regulator quickly determined the glitch, which shuts off an automated navigation system in some circumstances, did not raise a safety risk and would not delay certification.

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