Category: Boeing & Aerospace

Q: Is Boeing building 737 MAX jets in Everett?
A: Yes — for the first time. Boeing’s North Line, a new fourth 737 MAX assembly line at the Everett factory, opened and began production in July 2026 (Boeing July 10 feature; July 14 opening). The line will initially produce 737-8, 737-9, and 737-10 variants, with the workforce combining newly hired Everett employees and experienced teammates transferred from Renton and Moses Lake.

Boeing’s North Line: What It Means for Everett Workers and the Local Economy

For decades, if you wanted to see a 737 MAX come to life, you went to Renton. That’s about to change.

Boeing is preparing to open a fourth 737 MAX assembly line — called the North Line — at its massive Everett factory this summer, marking the first time in the company’s history that a narrowbody commercial aircraft will be assembled in Everett. For a city whose economy has long been anchored to Boeing’s widebody programs, it’s a meaningful shift — and one that’s already putting people to work.

A New Line, a New Chapter

The Everett factory — already the largest building by volume in the world — has been home to Boeing’s 747, 767, 777, and 777X programs. The addition of 737 MAX production to that mix isn’t just a production decision. It’s a signal that Boeing sees Everett as central to its recovery and growth strategy.

The North Line will be capable of building all 737 MAX variants, though it will initially focus on the 737-8, 737-9, and 737-10. Boeing program manager Katie Ringgold said the line will add capacity for production rates above 47 aircraft per month once it’s fully integrated — with a longer-term goal of reaching 63 planes per month, a target Ringgold acknowledged will “take a number of years.”

Production in Everett will replicate the build process used at the Renton factory, with one notable addition: a 737 Wing Transport Tool will ferry partially completed wings between facilities for final assembly in Everett.

Hiring and Training Are Already Underway

Construction and tooling on the North Line are complete. The focus now is on people.

Boeing is staffing the North Line with a mix of newly hired employees and experienced teammates drawn from Renton, Everett, and Moses Lake. The hiring process has been methodical by design. New employees complete 12 weeks of foundational training followed by structured on-the-job training (SOJT) at the Renton facility, pairing newcomers with experienced mentors before they transition to Everett.

Jaden Myers and Alondra Ponce were among the first employees hired specifically for the North Line, completing their training in late 2025. Myers, who works as a Flow Day 1 dorsal fin installer, described the experience straightforwardly: “Opening a new production line is something special — we have to do it right.” Ponce, an electrician, said the training environment set a positive tone: “Training was so positive and refreshing. It was different than any other training I’ve done. My managers and the workplace coaches were always there.”

Veteran Boeing mechanic John V. — a nearly 40-year Boeing employee who has worked across the 747, 767, and 777 programs — has joined the North Line in an FAA coordinator role, bringing institutional knowledge that newer employees will lean on as the line ramps up.

The Slow-and-Steady Approach: What LRIP Means

Boeing isn’t flipping the switch and immediately cranking out jets. The North Line will begin with a Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phase — an intentionally slow ramp-up that allows the team to conduct additional checks, fine-tune the production system, and demonstrate FAA compliance before full integration.

The first set of airplanes off the North Line will serve as conformity aircraft — essentially proving to the FAA that production at this new location meets the requirements of Boeing’s production certificate, PC700, the same certificate that covers 737 MAX production in Renton.

Jennifer Boland-Masterson, the North Line’s production leader, put it in plain terms: “You don’t start with a marathon. You start with shorter distances and build up from there.”

It’s a philosophy that reflects lessons Boeing has been working to absorb since the turbulence of recent years — the 737 MAX 9 door plug incident in January 2024, the subsequent FAA production rate cap, and the IAM 751 strike in fall 2024 that idled the Everett factory for seven weeks. Boeing’s Washington workforce declined from roughly 67,000 employees in early 2025 to about 65,000 by mid-year, before hiring picked back up in the second half of 2025.

What It Means for Everett

Boeing’s Everett campus already employs more than 30,000 people. The addition of 737 production — with its associated hiring, supply chain activity, and long-term production goals — represents a meaningful expansion of Boeing’s footprint in the city.

That matters beyond the factory floor. Boeing workers are a significant driver of housing demand in Snohomish County. They fill seats at Everett restaurants and coffee shops. Their paychecks circulate through the local economy in ways that affect schools, retail corridors, and city tax revenues. A production line that eventually sustains hundreds of additional jobs in Everett isn’t an abstraction — it shows up in lease signings, school enrollment, and downtown foot traffic.

The North Line also reflects Boeing’s broader effort to rebalance its manufacturing footprint. For years, Renton has been the sole producer of 737s — a single-point-of-failure arrangement that’s been a source of vulnerability. Distributing 737 production to Everett adds resilience to a program that generates more revenue than any other in Boeing’s commercial lineup.

The Road Ahead

The summer 2026 opening will mark the beginning of a multi-year ramp. The LRIP phase gives Boeing time to work out the kinks before volume increases. Katie Ringgold’s target of 63 aircraft per month across the combined Renton and North Line production is ambitious — but the cadence being set now, with careful hiring, thorough training, and FAA-compliant conformity builds, is the foundation it needs.

For Everett, the story is straightforward: the city that built the 747 — the plane that changed commercial aviation — is now becoming a home for the aircraft that defines Boeing’s near-term commercial future. The 737 MAX has had a complicated history. The North Line is part of how Boeing writes what comes next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Boeing’s North Line?

The North Line is a new fourth 737 MAX assembly line at Boeing’s Everett, Washington factory. It is the first time Boeing will produce narrowbody commercial aircraft in Everett, which has historically built widebody jets including the 747, 767, 777, and 777X.

When will the North Line open?

Boeing has announced a summer 2026 opening for the North Line. Production will begin with a Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phase before ramping to full integration with 737 MAX output.

How many jobs will the North Line create in Everett?

Boeing has not disclosed specific job numbers for the North Line. The workforce will combine newly hired Everett employees with experienced teammates transferred from Boeing’s Renton and Moses Lake facilities.

What 737 MAX models will be built at Everett?

The North Line will initially produce 737-8, 737-9, and 737-10 variants. The line is capable of building all 737 MAX models.

What is LRIP and why does it matter?

Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) is an intentionally slow startup phase that allows Boeing to conduct additional quality checks and demonstrate FAA compliance before the North Line is integrated into full 737 MAX production flow. The conformity aircraft produced during LRIP must satisfy the FAA under Boeing’s production certificate PC700.

How does this affect Boeing’s overall 737 production rate?

Once fully integrated, the North Line will add capacity beyond 47 aircraft per month across the combined Renton and Everett production. Boeing’s long-term target is 63 aircraft per month, though program manager Katie Ringgold has noted that reaching that rate will take several years.

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Go Deeper: We’ve published detailed knowledge nodes expanding on this story for specific Everett audiences:

• Boeing’s North Line in Everett: The Complete Worker’s Guide to the New 737 MAX Assembly Line
• Getting a Job on Boeing’s North Line in Everett: Training, Pay, and What to Expect

A New Era of Manufacturing Takes Shape in Everett

What is Boeing’s North Line? The North Line is Boeing’s fourth 737 MAX assembly line at the Everett factory — the first time 737s have ever been assembled in Everett. It opened and began low-rate initial production in July 2026 (Boeing July 10 feature; July 14 opening), with capacity planned toward more than 47 aircraft per month.

Something significant is taking shape on the north end of Boeing’s massive Everett campus. Among the widebody jets that have long defined this facility — the 747s, 767s, 777s, and the towering 777X — a new kind of production work is beginning. For the first time in the history of the world’s largest building by volume, workers are preparing to assemble 737 MAX narrowbody jets.

Boeing’s “North Line” — a fourth 737 MAX assembly line being stood up inside the Everett factory — opened in July 2026 (April readiness feature; July production feature). April 2026 reporting gave the clearest pre-open picture of how that effort was progressing. Production leader Jennifer Boland-Masterson described the approach plainly: “We know how to do it… but we need to warm up our muscles. You don’t start with a marathon.”

Why Everett? Why Now?

The short answer is capacity. Boeing’s existing three 737 MAX lines all run out of its Renton, Washington facility — a plant that has been the sole home of 737 production since the original 737 first flew in 1967. As Boeing pushes to reach and eventually surpass a production rate of 47 aircraft per month, Renton alone cannot absorb the volume. The Everett campus, home to the widebody programs, has the physical space, the skilled workforce, and the infrastructure to take on the load.

The longer answer involves Boeing’s recovery from one of the most turbulent stretches in its history. The 2024 IAM machinists’ strike — which idled production for nearly seven weeks — and ongoing FAA production rate caps have forced the company to rebuild methodically. The North Line isn’t just about adding jets off the end of an assembly process; it’s about demonstrating to regulators, customers, and the public that Boeing can scale quality manufacturing safely.

The People Making It Happen

The North Line workforce is being built from three sources: newly hired employees, experienced workers transferring from Renton, and veterans already on the Everett campus.

Among the first hired are Jaden Myers and Alondra Ponce, who joined the program in late 2025. Myers captured the weight of the moment: “Opening a new production line is something special. So, we have to do it right.” Ponce noted the quality of the onboarding experience: “Training was so positive and refreshing… My managers and the coaches were always there.”

New hires begin with 12 weeks of foundational training — much of it conducted in Renton, where they work alongside experienced mechanics on active 737 production before transitioning to Everett. The approach is intentional: Boeing wants North Line workers absorbing muscle memory from people who have built thousands of these planes, not just learning from manuals.

The program also leans on institutional knowledge already inside Everett. John V., a nearly 40-year Boeing veteran who spent years in a quality coaching role, is among those transitioning to support the North Line. “This will be my first time working on the 737 program,” he said. “But we are doing the training right.”

What the North Line Will Build

The line will be capable of assembling all 737 MAX variants — the MAX 8, MAX 9, and MAX 10 — though it will begin with a low-rate initial production (LRIP) phase that prioritizes quality checks over throughput. Boeing is also introducing the 737 Wing Transport Tool to the Everett operation, a piece of tooling that ferries partially completed wings from suppliers into the final assembly process — replicating how the Renton line works, now inside the Everett footprint.

Once the LRIP phase is complete and the line is integrated into Boeing’s overall 737 MAX production flow, the North Line will add meaningful capacity toward the company’s stated rate targets. Boeing has set 47 jets per month across all 737 lines as a near-term milestone, with longer-term ambitions reaching 63 aircraft per month when all four lines are running at full tempo. The 47/month target — once forecast for 2026 — has been pushed to 2027, a timeline that reflects both the deliberate ramp pace and ongoing FAA oversight requirements.

What It Means for Everett

Boeing’s Everett campus already employs more than 30,000 people, making it the single largest employer in Snohomish County and one of the most consequential job centers in the state of Washington. The North Line adds to that count — but the significance runs deeper than headcount.

For decades, Everett’s Boeing identity has been synonymous with widebody jets: the enormous 747, the freighter-capable 767, the long-range 777, and now the 777X. The addition of 737 narrowbody production shifts Everett’s manufacturing profile. It means more job classifications, more union-represented roles under the IAM District 751 contract, and a broader base of production activity that makes the campus less vulnerable to any single program’s fluctuations.

For the workers being hired into the program today — many of them Snohomish County residents who will drive to the Paine Field campus rather than commute to Renton — the North Line represents exactly what Everett has needed: new manufacturing jobs, on the doorstep, inside one of the most iconic industrial facilities in the world.

The Bigger Picture

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg toured the North Line earlier this month, a visible signal of executive attention on a program that carries considerable symbolic weight. The company is in a recovery phase — rebuilding production quality, restoring regulator confidence, and delivering on commitments to customers who have been waiting on aircraft orders for years. The North Line must go well.

Boland-Masterson’s marathon analogy holds. Boeing isn’t sprinting out of the gate in Everett. The LRIP phase will likely last several months before the line transitions to standard production flow. Every airplane that rolls off the North Line in its early phase will be inspected rigorously, and the rate will climb only when quality data supports it.

That measured approach may test the patience of airlines — Ryanair, Alaska Airlines, and others with large MAX backlogs — but it’s the right call for a program that can’t afford another quality headline. Everett’s North Line team knows that. The new hires know it. The veterans who’ve spent careers here know it.

“You don’t start with a marathon.” In Everett this summer, Boeing is lacing up its shoes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Boeing building on the North Line in Everett?
The North Line will produce 737 MAX narrowbody jets — all variants (MAX 8, MAX 9, and MAX 10) — marking the first time 737s have been assembled at the Everett factory.

When will the North Line start production?
Boeing is opened the North Line in July 2026 and began low-rate initial production (Boeing July feature).

Why is Boeing adding a 737 production line in Everett?
Boeing needs additional production capacity to reach and sustain 737 MAX rates above 47 aircraft per month. The Renton facility, which currently builds all 737s, cannot absorb that volume alone. Everett has the space, workforce, and infrastructure to support expansion.

How many workers will the North Line employ?
Boeing is hiring hundreds of workers for the North Line, drawing from new hires, existing Renton employees transferring to Everett, and experienced Everett campus workers adding 737 responsibilities.

How are North Line workers being trained?
New employees complete 12 weeks of foundational training, including hands-on time in Renton working alongside experienced 737 mechanics, before transitioning to the Everett North Line.

What is the FAA’s role in the North Line ramp-up?
The FAA has production rate oversight authority over Boeing’s 737 operations. The North Line will begin in a low-rate initial production (LRIP) phase with additional quality checks before being integrated into Boeing’s standard production flow — a process that requires FAA alignment.

Does the North Line affect Boeing’s Everett widebody programs?
The 737 program operates in a separate section of the Everett factory and does not directly impact widebody assembly (767, 777, 777X). Boeing has described the campus footprint as having capacity to accommodate both narrowbody and widebody work simultaneously.

See also: Boeing’s North Line: What 737 MAX Production Means for the Whole Region | Boeing North Line: What It Means If You Work at Paine Field