Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg revealed on Friday that the company will start manufacturing the 737 MAX passenger aircraft at its new final assembly line north of Seattle on July 6. Ortberg said: "The configuration of our new production line is completely consistent with the existing production line in Renton. The first aircraft will be officially put into assembly on July 6, and in about a month, the fourth assembly line will be officially put into production."
This new 737MAX assembly line in Everett, Washington, is a key enabler for Boeing to achieve its monthly production target of 52 aircraft, a capacity plan that is scheduled to be achieved next year. Boeing has increased its monthly 737MAX production from 42 to 47 aircraft this year and currently maintains this production level.
Although Boeing intends to speed up production and increase delivery, production capacity is subject to regulatory constraints by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). After a door plug fell off an Alaska Airlines 737MAX aircraft in January 2024, the FAA introduced control policies to restrict Boeing's production capacity expansion.
The safety incident prompted regulatory authorities to launch a long-term inspection of quality and safety hazards in Boeing's production process.
Ortberg said: "We are working hard to reshape the production quality control system. In the past 18 months, we have steadily increased production capacity, and the production model has been completely optimized and upgraded. At this stage, we must wait for the entire production system to run stably before promoting production expansion. We will no longer continue to use the previous extensive model of rushing to meet deadlines and overloading the front-end processes. This gives us confidence in subsequent development."
Ortberg and Boeing management have set a long-term production target: If the supply chain can keep up, the long-term monthly production target for the 737MAX is 63 aircraft.
The new production line will initially put into production the 737 MAX10 model. This extended version of the single-aisle passenger aircraft is expected to obtain FAA airworthiness certification within the year, and the first batch of deliveries can begin after the certification is completed.