Boeing’s Everett Factory Gets New Life With 737 Max Assembly Line

Boeing activated its first 737 MAX assembly line outside Renton on Monday, aiming to lift output to 52 jets a month as the planemaker digs out from years of crisis

Boeing activated a fourth 737 MAX assembly line Monday at its Everett, Washington, factory, the first time the jetliner has been built anywhere outside its longtime Renton plant.

The new line, which Boeing calls the North Line, is part of the planemaker’s long-term push to raise output of its best-selling single-aisle jet as it works to rebuild its finances after years of safety and production setbacks. Boeing currently builds 47 737 MAX jets a month and expects the North Line to help push that rate to 52 a month, though the company does not expect the new line to contribute to the overall rate before early 2027.

The launch marks a structural shift for Boeing, which now assembles the 737 MAX at two sites in Washington state rather than exclusively at Renton, where the program has been built since it began in the 1960s.

A Second Home for the 737 MAX

Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said in a June 5 CNBC interview that the company would begin loading the first airplane onto the new line on July 6. “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,” Ortberg said.

Ortberg described the North Line as a copy of Boeing’s existing setup at Renton, which has three production lines known internally as East, West and Central. “We’re introducing an additional production line, which is essentially a replica of our current setup in Renton,” he said.

The North Line will initially support final assembly of the 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9. Boeing plans to dedicate the line primarily to the MAX 10 once that variant receives certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Everett factory, where Boeing is opening the line, is recognized as the world’s largest building by volume, holding a Guinness World Record. The plant spans 4.3 million square feet of floor space across 98.3 acres and encloses 472 million cubic feet of volume. It has historically assembled Boeing’s 747, 767, 777 and 787 widebody jets.

Floor space opened up at Everett after Boeing announced on Oct. 1, 2020, that it would consolidate 787 production at its North Charleston, South Carolina, plant, a move completed the following year. The end of 747 production further freed capacity at the factory, clearing room for the new narrowbody line.

Chasing Higher Production Rates

Boeing’s path to the North Line runs through more than two years of tightened federal oversight. The FAA capped Boeing’s 737 MAX production at 38 jets a month in January 2024, after a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 jet on Jan. 5, 2024. The agency lifted that cap on Oct. 17, 2025, allowing Boeing to raise output to 42 jets a month.

Ortberg said on May 27, 2026, that Boeing had cleared a further hurdle, the FAA’s capstone review, opening the door to a 47-jet monthly rate. “We have successfully completed the capstone review for the 47-unit production rate, and we are now in the phase of operating the assembly line at that level,” he said at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. He added that stabilizing at that pace would take time. “It’ll probably take us a few months of stabilization there. My guess is we continue to go up in rate,” Ortberg said.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford backed the ramp-up in a May interview. “It’s important for the country that Boeing is successful. We are absolutely comfortable with 42 to 47 and I suspect in another 30, 60, 90 days we’re going to see continued rate increases,” Bedford said.

Boeing is also studying whether it can eventually push 737 MAX production as high as 70 jets a month. Ortberg has said his longer-term ambition is 63 jets a month, depending on the capability of Boeing’s supply chain. “We aspire to eventually reach a production rate of 63 units per month, and we are eager for that. The market can accommodate those elevated production levels,” he said at the Bernstein conference.

Boeing has been hiring up to 140 factory workers a week since April 2026 to support the higher production rates and new models coming online.

A Long Road to Recovery

The North Line launch comes as Boeing tries to climb out of a deep financial hole. The company posted a net loss of nearly $12 billion for full-year 2024, one of the largest annual losses in its history, as it dealt with safety fallout and a seven-week factory workers’ strike.

Boeing’s finances have since improved. Its free cash flow loss narrowed to about $0.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025, compared with a $4.3 billion loss in the same period of 2024, though the company’s gross debt still stands at roughly $45 billion to $50 billion, according to an Investing.com analysis.

Boeing delivered 250 jets through May 2026, of which 198 were 737 MAX models. The company’s overall commercial backlog stood at approximately 6,758 aircraft as of May 31, 2026, and its 737 MAX backlog alone stood at roughly 4,800 unfilled orders, according to differing estimates from aviation trackers.

What’s Next for the MAX Family

Two 737 MAX variants, the MAX 7 and MAX 10, still await FAA certification. FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau said on June 17, 2026, that the agency was in the “final stages” of certifying both models, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency is expected to validate that certification around the same time or soon after.

Bedford said in an April 21, 2026, interview that Boeing remained on track. “We haven’t seen anything today that would indicate that Boeing would not be able to meet certification before the end of the year,” he said.

Ryanair holds 150 firm orders and 150 options for the MAX 10, making it one of the type’s largest prospective customers, according to industry trackers, with deliveries planned to start in 2027. The MAX 10 offers Ryanair 21% more seats, 20% lower fuel burn and 50% less noise compared with the airline’s current 737NG fleet.

Southwest Airlines remains the world’s largest operator of the Boeing 737, with more than 800 737s in its fleet, including roughly 300 MAX 8s and more than 180 additional MAX 8s on order.

The 737 MAX competes directly with the Airbus A320neo family in the high-volume single-aisle market. Airbus assembles the A320neo at four sites — Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Tianjin, China; and Mobile, Alabama — a more geographically spread footprint than Boeing’s two Washington state locations. The A320neo backlog stood at 9,247 aircraft as of May 31, 2026, compared with Boeing’s roughly 6,758-aircraft commercial backlog.