Finally, good news for Boeing: Its new jetliner took off, flew, and landed without a hitch. A crowd watched the Boeing 777X (also called the 777-9 and 777-9X) complete its maiden flight north of Seattle on Saturday morning, Reuters reports. But the world's biggest twin-engined jetliner still requires FAA approval, which—after the 737 MAX crashed twice, killing all on board—will likely be rigorous. "The certification process is a new one and it's going to get applied to every next airplane, so we have ... to make sure that we can accommodate a really thorough review and investigation," Boeing CEO David Calhoun tells the Wall Street Journal. "It's just the way it's going to be."
Boeing is hoping for a boost after the 737 MAX grounding cost the company bigtime; experts estimate billions in losses and up to half point in GDP for the entire US economy short-term. Boeing says it has sold 309 777Xs at $442 million each, but possible snags await. For one, CNN asks whether the huge 406-seater is just too big for a market in which smaller planes are growing in popularity and carriers are bypassing hubs for more point-to-point service. What's more, Middle East carriers have already trimmed back their orders. "Longer-term, they'll need more than those guys for that airplane," says the CEO of leasing giant AerCap. "They'll need the big network carriers to find routes that it works on."
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