Boeing $BA will open a fourth 737 Max final assembly line on July 6 in Everett, Washington state, as the company has reached a production rate of 47 jets per month, CEO Kelly Ortberg told CNBC.
"We're adding another production line, it's really a carbon copy of what you see here in Renton," Ortberg said. "We'll be loading our first airplane on July 6, so just about a month from now, we'll be bringing that [fourth] line alive."
Hitting 52 jets per month — a threshold Boeing aims to cross next year — is the primary rationale for the Everett expansion. Output has already climbed this year, rising from 42 aircraft monthly to the current pace of 47. FAA certification of the 737 Max 10 — a longer-fuselage version of the narrowbody jet — is anticipated by year's end, and Everett will focus on that variant from the outset.
Ortberg said the company has been deliberate about how it has returned to higher rates. "We've made sure that we're not moving until the production system is stable. We're not pushing work down the production line like we were before. So I think that gives us all optimism," he said.
Boeing's output has been constrained by the FAA since Jan. 2024, when a door plug blew out midflight on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max, exposing manufacturing quality problems and prompting the agency to limit production. Boeing's efforts to clear the regulatory review needed to raise output to 47 jets per month came after the FAA cap was lifted last October.
At an industry conference last month, Ortberg said Boeing had passed the capstone review for the 47-per-month rate and described the company as "highly confident" about hitting the target. He also noted the stakes: "I think the whole world's watching to make sure we make 47 and 52."
Looking further out, 63 jets per month represents an ambition Ortberg has articulated for the Max program, though he has tied any move to that level to whether suppliers can keep pace.