Boeing Co. is considering either suspending or cutting back production of the 737 MAX amid growing uncertainty over the troubled plane’s return to service and could disclose a decision as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Boeing management increasingly sees pausing production as the most viable among difficult options as the plane maker’s board began a meeting Sunday in Chicago, these people said. Support for halting production comes days after U.S. regulators warned the aerospace giant it had been setting unrealistic expectations for when the jet would be allowed to fly again, these people said.

Cutting production further, following an earlier reduction in April, would inflate Boeing’s costs and trigger charges against its financial results as fixed expenses would be spread among fewer planes. It could also spur job cuts and furloughs across the global aerospace industry, as well as further disruption to airlines hit by the grounding of a fleet of around 800 jets that is likely to stretch to nearly a year.

Global aviation regulators grounded the MAX in March after a fatal accident in Ethiopia—the second one for the MAX, following one less than five months earlier in Indonesia. The accidents took a total of 346 lives.

Boeing said in October a production freeze or further cut could be necessary if federal approval of MAX flight-control software fixes and training changes extends into 2020.