Boeing has announced that it is prioritizing the safe return of the 737 MAX planes over the production of new ones, in a statement that also said due to this, the planemaker will be suspending production of its troubled jets from next month.

The 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide after two crashes killed 346 people on board Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019.

"Safely returning the 737 MAX to service is our top priority. We know that the process of approving the 737 MAX's return to service, and of determining appropriate training requirements, must be extraordinarily thorough and robust, to ensure that our regulators, customers, and the flying public have confidence in the 737 MAX updates," Boeing said in a statement.

"As we have previously said, the FAA and global regulatory authorities determine the timeline for certification and return to service," it added.

Boeing suspends 737 MAX production starting in January 

The American planemaker explained that it continued to build planes even after the grounding and that about 400 of these planes are now in storage. Boeing said it will prioritize delivering those planes first over producing new ones.

"We have previously stated that we would continually evaluate our production plans should the MAX grounding continue longer than we expected. As a result of this ongoing evaluation, we have decided to prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft and temporarily suspend production on the 737 program beginning next month," it said on December 17.

Boeing noted that the decision is the "least disruptive" to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health.

"This decision is driven by a number of factors, including the extension of certification into 2020, the uncertainty about the timing and conditions of return to service and global training approvals, and the importance of ensuring that we can prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft," it said in its statement.