Boeing aims this year to hike 737 production to at least 38 jets monthly, and possibly as high as 42, if it receives permission to do so from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“We want to get through the rate 38 approval… this year and to get to that 42 sometime this year,” Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg told investors on 28 January during the company’s 2024 earnings call.
“We have sufficient parts inventory to enable producing at 38 per month,” he adds, specifying that Boeing even has sufficient numbers of fuselages, shortages of which had previously limited output. “All three of the production lines in Renton are now cycling.”
He adds that fuselage producer Spirit AeroSystems “has done a really, really nice job in improving the quality… and the flow of the fuselages”.
Boeing had last been producing 737s at a 38-monthly rate in January 2023, though its output then immediately slowed as the FAA cracked down amid an investigation into the in-flight blow-out of a 737 Max 9’s door-plug that month.
During its investigation, the FAA capped Boeing’s 737 production at 38 jets monthly, a limit that remains in place.
The FAA will only lift the restriction if Boeing meets “performance indicators” based on factors such as employee efficiency, parts shortages and prevalence of both rework and travelled work – which is work completed at a different stage of the production process than intended.
Ortberg says that last quarter Boeing and the FAA completed a “safety management meeting”, with the regulator having reported observing “significant improvements”.
“I’m pleased we have an agreed upon path for rate increases beyond 38 per month,” Ortberg says.
Boeing does not disclose the actual number of jets that actually roll off its assembly lines during a given period, but aerospace consultancy and analytics firm AirInsight Group estimates the company produced an average of 16 737 Max monthly in strike-hit 2024.
Boeing delivered 265 737s in 2024 (an average of 22 monthly, many being previously produced jets from its inventory), down 33% year on year.
The company does not disclose specific aircraft-delivery guidance, but chief financial officer Brian West predicts the pace of 737 deliveries will increase significantly in the months ahead.
He says 737 deliveries should be in the “high 30s” for January, and that full-year 737 deliveries “should look like 2023, maybe a bit better if things go our way”. Boeing delivered 396 737s in 2023, or an average of 33 monthly.
