Boeing will temporarily halt production of its troubled 737 Max airliner in January, the manufacturer announced.
Production of the jet had continued despite the model being grounded for nine months after two deadly crashes.
More than 300 people died when two 737 Max aircraft crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia after reported problems with a new feature.
Boeing had been hoping to have the planes back in the air by the end of this year.
But US regulators made it clear that they would not be certified to return to the skies that quickly.
Boeing is one of the largest US exporters. The company said in a statement that it would not lay off workers associated with the 737 Max, but the stoppage is likely to affect suppliers and the wider economy.
Last week a congressional hearing was told that US aviation regulators were aware, following the first crash in Indonesia in October 2018, that there was a risk of further accidents.
The Federal Aviation Authority’s analysis suggested there could be more than a dozen more crashes over the lifetime of the aircraft unless changes were made to its design.
Despite that, the 737 Max was not grounded until after the second crash in Ethiopia in March 2019.
Boeing is redesigning the automated control system thought to have been the primary cause of the crashes.
The manufacturer said it had 400 of the 737 Max aircraft in storage and would focus on delivering those to customers. While many airlines around the world have the planes on order, delivery was halted to allow Boeing’s engineers to develop software fixes.
-BBC
