Certification delays for sliding doors on business-class suites are leaving aircraft stuck at factories and costing airlines millions. United, Boeing, and others face ongoing hurdles.
Certification delays for sliding doors on business-class suites are leaving aircraft stuck at factories and costing airlines millions in lost revenue. The problem has grown as carriers pack planes with more premium seats, chasing a post-pandemic travel boom.
United Airlines rolled out a 787-9 in April with 64 Polaris business-class seats, each with a sliding door. The doors stayed locked open until August, when the Federal Aviation Administration finally certified them. American Airlines faced the same issue on its Airbus A321XLR last December: the doors were locked for seven months. Air India has also kept its new 787 business-class doors locked open, still waiting for FAA approval.
The core issue is evacuation safety. Regulators must verify that sliding doors won't block passengers during an emergency exit. Each new seat design requires individual certification, even when the mechanism is similar to one already approved.
“They all have exactly this same door design, and we're still struggling every time to get them certified, including the ones that are flying already,” Sascha Manitz, a sales director at Boeing subsidiary Elevate Aircraft Seating, told Business Insider at the Farnborough Airshow in July. “It seems like the goalposts are moving all the time.”
The FAA said in a statement it is “engaged with seat and aircraft manufacturers to maintain clear communication throughout the certification lifecycle” and working with international partners to “streamline the approval process.”
Some airlines have pursued more ambitious layouts, making the problem worse. Lufthansa's Allegris business-class suites come in five configurations – extra legroom, bigger beds, different angles. When the airline began flying an Allegris-equipped Boeing 787 in October 2025, only four of the 28 seats were usable. Partial approval came four months later, but three seats remain off-limits.
KLM plans to start operating its first Airbus A350 in October with all 34 business-class seats empty. The Dutch carrier cited “a revised interpretation of regulatory requirements” in a press release. Air France uses a similar seat, but the European Union Aviation Safety Agency told Business Insider that KLM's configuration “includes more rows and different seat angles,” requiring additional safety tests.
“From a safety perspective, seat design and approved installation are crucial to ensuring that a passenger has the best possible chance of surviving any unexpected event and is therefore able to evacuate safely,” an EASA spokesperson said.
The delays ripple beyond the airlines. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in an April earnings call that seating issues are affecting deliveries more than production. The company can still build 787s, but a “fair number” of completed jets are held up waiting for seat certification. In July, he warned that seat certifications “may make our deliveries a little bit lumpy,” but noted “important progress.” He added that Riyadh Air was the last customer with a large number of aircraft tied to a single seat certification, and that “the seat certifications are going to be with us for the balance of the year.”
Several 787 Dreamliners built for Riyadh Air were ready for delivery months ago but sat at the factory waiting for seat approval. Two were eventually handed over in June.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said in an April earnings call that when customer-supplied seats aren't ready, Airbus can contractually deliver the planes without them. He prefers to find another solution, but the option exists.
Justin Hale, Boeing's marketing director for the 777X, told media at the Farnborough Airshow that the planemaker has tried offering pre-certified catalog options to reduce delays. Airlines want their own distinctive cabins, especially in business class, where brands compete on privacy and luxury.
“So this is a very difficult area of the cabin to try to reuse something that was certified, maybe either generically, or by another operator,” he said.
The EASA spokesperson echoed that: delays have arisen because “many airlines are seeking to differentiate and enhance their cabin experience in different ways and for different purposes.”
Hale said the real solution is for regulators to get more efficient. “I think that the real solution is regulators – both in Europe and in the US, and they recognize this – need to get much more efficient at getting through these certifications. I think we see some improvement, and we see some commitment to do that, but that has not solved a large backlog of seat certifications.”
Among the carriers caught up in the delays, United Airlines carries an Alpha Score of 64 out of 100, a moderate rating reflecting its managed exposure to operational disruptions. Boeing scores 41, a mixed reading that captures the drag from delivery delays on its 787 program. American Airlines scores 57, also moderate.
For now, the certification logjam shows no quick fix. Each new seat design means a fresh round of testing, and airlines show no sign of backing away from the sliding doors that premium travelers now expect. The revenue lost to locked or empty seats will keep piling up until regulators find a faster path through the paperwork.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.