Overview
- Boeing held a ribbon-cutting on Friday and began low-rate operations at the North Line, loading initial 737 MAX 10 fuselages into assembly.
- About 1,000 workers are being trained for the line, with roughly half transferred from Renton and the rest newly hired to mirror Renton’s 10-step assembly flow.
- The Everett line will build MAX 8, MAX 9 and MAX 10 variants while MAX 7 assembly and tooling remain at Renton.
- Boeing says the North Line is central to plans to raise output from about 47 planes per month toward 52 and possibly as high as 63, but higher rates and commercial deliveries require FAA sign-off and MAX 10 certification.
- The expansion aims to address a backlog of roughly 4,300–4,800 unfilled 737 MAX orders and to help Boeing regain ground against Airbus’s strong A320neo deliveries.