Boeing expects 737 MAX back in service in mid-2020

Boeing said on Tuesday it expects regulators will allow its troubled 737 MAX to return to service in mid-2020, months later than the US aerospace giant earlier anticipated.

"We are informing our customers and suppliers that we are currently estimating that the ungrounding of the 737 MAX will begin during mid-2020," Boeing said in a statement to Deutsche press agency (dpa).

Boeing has previously said the plane was expected to be cleared by the end of 2019.

The latest estimate accounts for the "rigorous scrutiny that regulatory authorities are rightly applying at every step of their review of the 737 MAX's flight control system and the Joint Operations Evaluation Board process which determines pilot training requirements," the company said.

Trading of the company's stock was temporarily halted on Tuesday as news of the delay was first reported. Boeing stock closed the day at down over 3 percentage points.

Boeing has been in crisis after two crashes of its 737 MAX in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people and led authorities around the world to ground the model in March.

The company recently said it discovered a new software problem with its best-selling jets that could further complicate its efforts to get it re-certified.

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said it is "following a thorough, deliberate process to verify that all proposed modifications to the Boeing 737 MAX meet the highest certification standards."

The regulator did not offer its own timeframe as to when its work will be completed.

The fallout of the two 737 MAX crashes has led Boeing to halt production of the plane and to the resignation of chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.

The FAA last month sharply criticized Muilenburg's forecast for getting the plane back in the air, calling it "not realistic" and saying he pressured the FAA into allowing the planes to return to service.

Boeing is one of the largest exporters in the US and competes with Europe's Airbus. The 737 MAX, produced near Seattle, Washington, is the manufacturer's most important aircraft.