Boeing will open its fourth Max production line in Everett, Washington, this summer, setting a timeline that the Everett community has been waiting to hear for two years.

Boeing hopes to eventually reach a Max production rate of 63 planes per month, Katie Ringgold, Boeing’s 737 program manager said Tuesday, speaking at an annual conference for the businesses that make up Washington’s aerospace supply chain.

Increasing production to 63 planes per month, from its current rate of 42, would take a “number of years,” Ringgold said. But Boeing does plan to increase its Max production rate “several times” in 2026, she continued.

The North Line in Everett is key to making that increase possible.

“We’re going to start the North Line before we need it,” Ringgold said. “You should always start a big project before you need the output of that project.”

Boeing announced its plans to open a fourth Max production line in 2023, to capitalize on unused space in the Everett factory after it ended 747 production and moved all 787 production to its facility in North Charleston, South Carolina. The North Line won’t replace the three Max lines Boeing already runs in Renton, Washington.

Boeing initially forecast the North Line would be up and running in mid-2024. Then a midair panel blowout that January slowed Boeing’s Max production and changed its trajectory.

The Federal Aviation Administration capped Boeing’s Max production at 38 planes per month following the panel blowout until October, when it granted the manufacturer permission to increase its production rate to 42 planes per month.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told analysts in January Boeing would again increase its Max production rate this year, following a set of metrics it devised with the FAA to ensure it is meeting quality and safety standards before ramping up production.

After months of delays, Boeing has now started hiring for its North Line, Ortberg told analysts on the company’s most recent earnings call. In January, Boeing posted job listings for shift managers for the North Line.

On Tuesday, Ringgold said Boeing would open the North Line “midsummer.” That will be the first time Boeing has assembled a narrowbody plane outside of Renton, Ringgold told suppliers at the conference, hosted by the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance.

“Right now, I’m not getting a lot of sleep as we think about opening that line,” she joked.

To suppliers, she said, “we rely on each of you to support a year of growth.”

Boeing was on a path to produce 63 Max planes per month in 2018 and at the start of 2019, before two fatal 737 Max crashes grounded its most popular plane. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting impact on air travel and the aerospace supply chain continued to hamper Boeing’s production. Then, in January 2024, the midair fuselage blowout again slowed Boeing’s factory.

Boeing plans to use the North Line to build its largest variant, the 737 Max 10. The FAA has not yet certified the Max 10 or its smaller variant, the Max 7. Boeing executives expect the planes will be certified this year.

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