Boeing intends this year to continue ramping aircraft assembly rates, aiming to be producing 42 of the company’s 737 Max jets and eight 787s each month before the start of 2026.
The company disclosed the production estimates on 29 October when reporting third-quarter financial results, with chief executive Kelly Ortberg insisting that Boeing’s production system is getting back on track.
“I’m planning that we will exit the year very soundly at the 42-a-month rate,” Ortberg says of 737 output.
Boeing this year has been running its 737 production lines at a rate of 38 jets monthly.
The company in October said it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to hike 737 output to 42 jets monthly. The agency has capped Boeing’s production since shortly after a 737 Max 9’s mid-cabin door plug blew out in January 2024 due to a manufacturing error.
Boeing has not yet increased output beyond rate 38, but Ortberg says the company is now “loading” its operation to hit rate 42, meaning it is testing its system before actually advancing to steady production at the elevated pace.
After hitting rate 42, Boeing expects over time to accelerate 737 production in increments of five aircraft monthly – to 47, then 52 – but only when convinced its production system is stable and secure, Ortberg says.
Those increases will not come less than six months apart, he adds.
Boeing also this year hiked 787 production from five to seven jets monthly. It assembles the widebody jets in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Ortberg says Boeing expects to end 2025 producing eight of the widebody jets monthly and to hit 10 monthly next year.
“The move from eight to ten will be more challenging for us with the supply chain,” Ortberg says, calling out seat-certification delays. “I think seats will continue to be constraining item.”
Boeing is also planning additional 787 production bumps, with Ortberg saying, “We think that the market demand will allow us to get rate in the teens”.
He does not say when Boeing expects to get there.
To accommodate that growth, the company has a project underway that involves doubling its manufacturing footprint in North Charleston.
Meanwhile, Boeing has made progress ridding itself of its once-massive inventory of undelivered jets.
The company ended September with an inventory of five undelivered 737 Max 8s that it had assembled before 2023 – 15 fewer than three months earlier.
It also held 10 787s assembled before 2023 – five fewer than three months ago – and 35 737 Max 7s and Max 10s, neither of which has been certificated.
