RENTON, Wash. — Boeing will start constructing new 737 Max airplanes on July 6 at a ultimate meeting line it is opening north of Seattle, CEO Kelly Ortberg advised CNBC on Friday.
“We’re including one other manufacturing line, it is actually a carbon copy of what you see right here in Renton,” Ortberg stated. “We’ll be loading our first airplane on July 6, so nearly a month from now, we’ll be bringing that [fourth] line alive.”
The brand new 737 Max ultimate meeting line in Everett, Washington, will function a catalyst for growing Max manufacturing to 52 jets per thirty days — a tempo that is anticipated to start subsequent yr. Boeing is presently constructing 47 Maxes per thirty days after ramping output from 42 a month earlier this yr.
Whereas Boeing needs to construct and ship extra 737 Max planes, its manufacturing is capped by the Federal Aviation Administration, which put limits on its manufacturing after a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airways aircraft in January 2024.
That incident prompted prolonged evaluations of security and high quality points within the manufacturing course of at Boeing.
“We’re attempting to reset that observe document, and I feel we have accomplished a very good job as we have come again up right here within the final 18 months and elevated price, and we have accomplished it otherwise,” Ortberg stated. “We have made certain that we’re not shifting till the manufacturing system is secure. We’re not pushing work down the manufacturing line like we have been earlier than. So I feel that provides us all optimism.”
Ortberg and Boeing management have set a long-term objective for Max manufacturing of 63 per thirty days, if the provision chain can help the rise.
The brand new meeting line will begin with manufacturing of the 737 Max 10, a stretch model of the one aisle aircraft that’s anticipated to be licensed by the FAA earlier than the top of the yr, clearing the best way for the primary 737 Max 10 deliveries.