Boeing unveils new 737 MAX production line as aviation giant charts comeback
At an exciting ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by hundreds of Boeing employees, commercial airlines chief Stephanie Pope and Washington state elected officials described the new $1 billion “North Line” MAX production line investment in Everett, Wash., as a fitting next step for an industrial facility that has been building Boeing’s tallest plane in decades.
“This investment is a vote of confidence in our workforce, American manufacturing, and the future of aviation in the city of Everett,” said Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin. “This factory has shown the world time and time again what is possible.”
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Boeing has big plans for the Northern Line, predicting a production pace comparable to that at Renton, 35 miles to the south, until this week the exclusive home of MAX assembly.
But in keeping with Boeing’s warnings after two deadly MAX crashes, executives are planning a gradual ramp-up in Everett of a jet that once defined the company’s problems but is now at the center of its turnaround.
“This is a fast start,” Jennifer Boland-Masterson, Boeing’s senior director of Northern Line production, said during a media tour of the new production line earlier this week. “We’ll start slower and then increase our rates,” Boland-Masterson said, describing work to be done on the facility’s first 737 MAX 10 fuselage, which has just begun assembly.
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The Everett building was used to assemble the Boeing 787 Dreamliner before Boeing shifted the operation to South Carolina.
While triumphant music played at Friday’s ceremony, the massive Convention Center-sized space was largely empty earlier in the week save for idle cranes, scattered workers and the occasional hum of drilling.
The Everett operation is closely based on MAX assembly lines in Renton. Operations are spread over 10 “flow days”, including days when wings are added and the structure is outfitted with engines, seats and other components.
Boland-Masterson declined to provide a timeline for when the first North Line MAX aircraft would complete the process. Boeing is training 1,000 Northern Line personnel, about half from Renton and the rest from new hires.
The operation, located in Everett because of a lack of available land in Renton, will be a central element of Boeing’s goal to increase MAX production from the current 47 to 63 per month and possibly higher, an increase that will be closely monitored by federal aviation regulators.
Regulatory hurdles remain
The MAX has been a key element at a time when Boeing has long stumbled. They began with a pair of deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people and led to congressional hearings in which Boeing was slammed for subverting safety in the pursuit of profits and misleading Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulators during certification.
The company changed leadership in December 2019, but doubts about the MAX resurfaced in January 2024.
Then, the window panel of an Alaska Airlines jet exploded mid-flight before an emergency landing that miraculously resulted in no fatalities. The incident plunged Boeing back into crisis and led to another leadership shakeup.
Since then, CEO Kelly Ortberg has implemented process and quality control improvements and worked to restore credibility with airline customers and FAA regulators; He gave the green light to increase MAX production from 38 to 42 and then from 42 to 47.
Ortberg said at a Wall Street conference in late May that it would take “a few months of stabilization” at the 47 level in terms of preparing the supply chain while monitoring key performance indicators.
After “low-rate initial production” at Everett, “North Line will help the 737 MAX program reach 52 aircraft per month,” according to Boeing’s statement.
But Boeing has significant hurdles to clear from the FAA, including certification of the 737 MAX 10. Additionally, the agency must sign off on the company’s production plans for Everett before commercial aircraft can be delivered.
