Boeing has now put it in black and white: the Boeing 777-9 is still on track for first delivery in 2027. In its first quarter 2026 results, the manufacturer said the program “continued to make progress” on 777-9 certification and that it “anticipates first delivery in 2027,” effectively confirming that launch-customer Lufthansa should finally receive the long-delayed jet next year.

That is undeniably good news for Boeing after years of slips, pauses, and rising regulatory scrutiny. But it is also a reminder of just how painful the 777X program has become. The aircraft was originally due to enter service in 2020, meaning it is now running 7 years late. Boeing has also taken roughly $15 billion in charges on the program, turning what should have been its flagship widebody launch into one of the costliest development sagas in modern commercial aviation.

Boeing Stands Firm On A 777X Delivery Date

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Boeing’s commitment to the timeline was announced as part of its earnings release. The company said the 777X program had achieved a number of important milestones, including FAA approval to begin the Type Inspection Authorization 4A phase of certification flight testing. As a result, it confirmed that it was sticking to the timeline that it had pushed out as recently as last October.

“The 777X program has continued to make steady progress on 777-9 certification… The company anticipates first delivery in 2027.”

The ugly part is the bill. The aircraft is now seven years behind its original 2020 service-entry target, and Reuters reported in February that Boeing had already taken $15 billion in charges on the development program. On cost recovery, the math is striking: using the widely cited 777-9 list price of about $440 million with $50 million in profit, Boeing will need to sell roughly 300 aircraft to match those overruns. That is a considerable hole for Boeing to climb out of.

Lufthansa is set to be the launch customer for the 777-9. Boeing has been preparing a production-standard Lufthansa 777-9 for flight testing, while Lufthansa Aviation Training says delivery is currently scheduled for mid-2027. Cathay Pacific also said in March that it expects its first 777-9 in 2027, and Emirates has signaled it is planning for late 2027 as well. Beyond those carriers, the 777-8F freighter is expected to follow in 2028, although Boeing has given no assurance around that timeline.

Certification Is Moving, But Not Done

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The progress is real. In March, the FAA cleared the 777-9 to move into Type Inspection Authorization Phase 4A, a key step in Boeing’s certification campaign. Boeing reiterated this in its Q1 results, saying that Phase 4A had begun. That is immediately evident when examining the activity of the 777X test fleet on FlightRadar24: three of the five aircraft have amassed over 40 flights so far this month, with two airborne at the time of writing.

Still, there is a lot left to do. There were still two more approval gates to get through once 4A is completed — Phase 4B and Phase 5 — before moving into broader functionality and reliability work and the operational proving needed for airline service, including ETOPS-related work on production-standard aircraft. Put simply, the 777X is now on the back straight, but it is not yet at the finish line, and the most realistic reading is that much of 2026 will be spent finishing formal flight-test phases and validating production-standard aircraft.

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Boeing 777-9 Hits Massive FAA Milestone: Is The Long Wait Finally Over?

With this green light from the FAA, Boeing is one step closer to its goal of certifying its long-awaited 777-9 aircraft.

Boeing’s Head Start Could Become A Headache

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On paper, Boeing has an advantage: it already has a sizable inventory of 777Xs built, assembled between 2018 and 2022 when the manufacturer was still confident that it would sail through the FAA certification process. According to The Seattle Times, Boeing has already assembled as many as 26 777X aircraft, five of which are being used for test flights. This leaves a further 21, which are being stored at Paine Field (PAE), “parked nose-to-tail on a runway with large blocks hanging from their wings in place of engines.”

But early-build aircraft can be a trap as much as an asset. Boeing learned that the hard way with the 787, when some of its earliest production Dreamliners became infamous as the “terrible teens” because they were built before the program had fully stabilized, later required expensive rework, and even then were never able to meet regular production standards. One example, the 17th Dreamliner to roll off the production line in Everett, which has just 13 flight hours, was recently scrapped for parts.

The 777X risks a similar problem. Aircraft built years before certification can require configuration changes, engineering updates, inspection work, or cabin and systems modifications before they are genuinely delivery-ready. In other words, those early 777Xs may not be a fast track to service so much as a second workload sitting on Boeing’s ramp.

Even so, the overall direction of travel is finally positive. Boeing is sounding confident about 2027, certification is advancing, and Lufthansa’s first aircraft is active in the production-standard test stream. For the German flag carrier, it will be a relief to be able to finally retire some of its oldest quad-jets, such as the Airbus A340-600 and 747-400. For aviation enthusiasts, the celebration of the long-delayed arrival of the 777-9 will be tinged with sadness as it hastens the disappearance of iconic aircraft types from passenger service.