Tag: Snohomish County

The quick version: On April 3, 2026, airmen from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing flew Boeing’s 105th KC-46A Pegasus tanker out of Everett’s Paine Field on its way to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. The delivery passed the halfway point of the Air Force’s current 179-aircraft program of record. Boeing plans to deliver 19 KC-46s in 2026 — up from 14 in 2025 — and the Everett-built tanker line is one of the only Boeing defense programs still running in steady production at the factory.

While most of Everett’s Boeing news this spring has focused on the 737 North Line standup and the 777X’s production flight, a quieter, steadier story has been unfolding on the opposite end of the factory ramp: the KC-46A Pegasus tanker line, Boeing’s Air Force refueling aircraft, just crossed a significant milestone with its 105th delivery — and Everett has 18 more on the 2026 manifest.

The tanker line is not glamorous. It doesn’t make headlines the way a widebody reveal does. But for the workforce that builds it and the suppliers that feed it, the KC-46 is one of the most consistent defense programs in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also one of the clearest signs of what Boeing’s Everett factory looks like when it’s running steady.

Here’s what the 105th delivery tells us about the program, the year, and Everett.

What actually happened on April 3

On April 3, 2026, a crew from McConnell Air Force Base’s 22nd Air Refueling Wing flew up to Paine Field, walked the aircraft acceptance process, and ferried a brand-new KC-46A out of Everett. The crew included members of the 22nd Operations Group, 22nd Maintenance Group, and 22nd Medical Group. The first leg of the delivery flight — Paine Field to Travis Air Force Base in California — had USTRANSCOM Director of Operations Brig. Gen. Corey Simmons in the commander’s seat.

The final leg from Travis to McConnell was flown by Maj. Kyle Haydel, a 22nd Operations Group KC-46 pilot, and wasn’t just a routine delivery. It was Haydel’s “fini flight” — the traditional final flight of an Air Force pilot’s career or assignment, ceremonially celebrated with a water-cannon salute on arrival.

That kind of moment is worth noting because it’s the human end of what otherwise reads like a procurement milestone. The 105th tanker is a data point; the crew that picked it up in Everett is a career.

Where the program stands

The Air Force’s current KC-46 program of record is 179 aircraft. The 105th delivery means the fleet is well past the halfway point, with enough tankers in service that the KC-46 is now doing real operational work — not just test and training missions. McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas remains the operational center of gravity for the program, with tankers stationed at several other Air Force bases nationwide and additional deliveries planned for allied nations.

The program has also been significantly extended beyond the original 179. Under the Tanker Production Extension (TPE) plan, the Air Force is targeting 263 total KC-46 aircraft by 2030, with 88 planes from the original order still in production and 75 more under the extension. Boeing was awarded a $2.4 billion contract for 15 additional tankers in late 2024, and further awards have followed.

For Everett, this is the kind of defense work that’s actually durable. The 767-based airframe that underpins the KC-46 is the reason Boeing extended 767 production past its original planned 2027 sunset: starting in 2027, Everett will build the 767-2C aircraft solely to support the KC-46A line, preserving the Everett tanker production capability for the remainder of the decade.

The 19-aircraft 2026 plan

The headline operational number for this year is simple: Boeing delivered 14 KC-46s in 2025 and plans to deliver 19 in 2026. That’s a 35% year-over-year increase in delivery rate, and it tracks with what program observers have been expecting — Boeing is working through backlog while the TPE contracts move into production.

Nineteen tankers in a year sounds modest compared to commercial widebody rates, but defense production has its own rhythm. Each KC-46 delivery requires customer acceptance by the Air Force, weapons-system testing certification on the refueling boom and Remote Vision System, and coordination with the receiving unit’s flight crews. McConnell, Travis, Pease, Seymour Johnson, and the other bases in the KC-46 network don’t just take delivery — they integrate each aircraft into existing rotations.

For the Everett workforce, the ramp from 14 to 19 means steady hiring needs on the KC-46 line specifically, in addition to the much larger 737 North Line and 777X workforces ramping in parallel. The IAM 751 machinists who physically assemble the tanker line, the SPEEA engineers and technical workers who sign off on certifications, and the supplier network from Renton to Auburn to Frederickson all see the tick-up.

The $565 million question

No honest piece about the KC-46 leaves out the program’s financial pattern. Boeing took another $565 million charge on the KC-46 program in its Q4 2025 earnings — the latest in a long series of program losses that have become an almost routine feature of Boeing’s defense earnings calls.

The KC-46 is a fixed-price contract. When modifications, rework, or schedule slips happen, Boeing absorbs the cost rather than passing it on to the Air Force. The program has been a durable source of losses since its early production years. Whether the 2025 charge is a one-off or part of a continuing pattern is something Boeing leadership will have to address at the next earnings call.

For Everett, the takeaway is that the tanker program keeps producing airplanes and paychecks even while it produces accounting losses. Fixed-price-driven losses are Boeing corporate’s problem. Production runs are the factory’s reality.

Why Everett’s tanker line matters beyond Boeing

Four angles, each worth a sentence or two:

Allied customers. The tanker isn’t just an Air Force platform. Boeing holds KC-46 orders for four aircraft for Israel and two for Japan, in addition to the 54-plus Air Force tails still in production. International deliveries move through the same Everett line and extend the program’s runway.

The 767 cover. The KC-46 is the single biggest reason the 767-2C is still being built at Paine Field. Without the tanker program, Boeing’s commercial 767 Freighter is scheduled to end production in 2027, which would have idled the 767 line entirely. The tanker keeps the tooling, supply chain, and workforce warm for the rest of the decade.

Supplier pull-through. Snohomish County’s 600-plus aerospace suppliers work across many Boeing programs, but the KC-46 has a distinct parts profile — boom systems, communications, defensive countermeasures — that pulls in a specific tier of suppliers. A 35% delivery ramp this year is a meaningful order book for those shops.

Defense workforce continuity. When Boeing engineers and technical workers bargain SPEEA’s contract later this year, one of the quiet variables in the room is the health of the defense programs. A steady-delivery KC-46 line is an argument for stable defense staffing at Everett through the end of the decade.

The view from Paine Field

If you’re walking the perimeter road on the east side of Paine Field in the late afternoon this spring, the KC-46 line is the easiest Boeing program to spot. The airframes are the distinctive 767 shape in Air Force gray, with the refueling boom folded into its housing on the belly and the Remote Vision System fairing on the tail. Tankers sit on the flight line ahead of acceptance testing, and the occasional delivery crew from McConnell or Travis cycles through.

From the public viewing lot at the Future of Flight, you can usually see one or two KC-46s at various stages of completion from any given week. The program doesn’t draw tour-bus crowds the way the 777X or 737 lines do — but it’s the most consistent visual evidence, year-round, that Everett still builds airplanes for the U.S. Air Force.

What’s next

Eighteen more KC-46 deliveries are scheduled between now and year-end. The next near-term milestone is the 106th delivery — expected in coming weeks — and continued ramp toward the 19-aircraft 2026 total.

Beyond that: ongoing TPE-contract production, the ramp into 767-2C-only production in 2027, and, further out, the program’s continued march toward the 263-tanker target by 2030. None of those are breaking-news moments. They’re just the steady backbone of what Boeing Everett does when it’s running well.

Sometimes that’s the story.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the 105th KC-46 delivered from Boeing’s Everett factory? April 3, 2026. The aircraft was flown to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas via Travis Air Force Base.

How many KC-46 tankers will Boeing deliver in 2026? Boeing plans to deliver 19 KC-46 tankers in 2026, up from 14 delivered in 2025.

Where is the KC-46 Pegasus tanker built? The KC-46A Pegasus is built at Boeing’s Everett factory at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. It is derived from the Boeing 767 airframe.

How many KC-46s has the Air Force ordered from Boeing? The current program of record is 179 aircraft, with plans to grow to 263 aircraft by 2030 under the Tanker Production Extension plan. The Air Force has received 105 tankers as of April 2026.

Does the KC-46 program also serve foreign customers? Yes. Boeing has confirmed orders for four KC-46s for Israel and two for Japan, in addition to the U.S. Air Force production.

Why is the KC-46 important for Everett even after the 767 commercial line ends? Starting in 2027, Boeing plans to produce 767-2C aircraft solely to support the KC-46A tanker program, keeping the 767 line running at Paine Field through the rest of the decade.

Has the KC-46 program been profitable for Boeing? No. The KC-46 is a fixed-price contract and has generated repeated program losses for Boeing, including a $565 million charge recorded in Q4 2025. However, the production line continues to deliver aircraft on schedule and Boeing Everett continues to employ the tanker workforce.

Who built and flew the 105th KC-46 delivery? The aircraft was built at Boeing’s Everett factory. The delivery flight was crewed by airmen from the 22nd Operations Group, 22nd Maintenance Group, and 22nd Medical Group at McConnell Air Force Base, with the final leg flown by Maj. Kyle Haydel as his “fini flight.”

The quick version: SPEEA’s two Boeing bargaining units — the Professional unit (engineers, scientists) and the Technical unit (designers, planners, technicians) — have contracts that expire October 6, 2026. Negotiations for about 16,000 Puget Sound workers are actively underway, and the SPEEA Wichita deal ratified in January 2026 (a 20% wage-pool increase over 58 months plus a $6,000 ratification bonus) has become the de facto opening benchmark. Everett is one of the two largest concentrations of SPEEA members in the country, so the contract will land directly on Paine Field paychecks, mortgages, and school budgets.

Walk into any coffee shop on Mukilteo Boulevard on a Thursday morning and you’ll hear it — the quiet, steady conversation of Boeing engineers and technical workers working out what their next five years are going to look like. SPEEA’s Puget Sound contract with Boeing expires on October 6, 2026. That’s less than six months from tonight. And unlike the IAM 751 machinists’ contract fight in the fall of 2024, this one isn’t on anyone’s national radar yet — which is exactly why it matters here first.

Roughly 16,000 SPEEA-represented workers sit inside Boeing’s Washington, Oregon, California, and Utah footprint, with the overwhelming majority clustered in the Puget Sound region. In Everett, that means the engineers designing the 777X, the planners choreographing the 737 North Line opening this summer, the test technicians running the KC-46 tanker through its paces at Paine Field, and the scientists working the composite wings that ship north from Frederickson to the Everett factory. When SPEEA bargains, Everett bargains.

Here’s the full picture of where things stand on April 16, 2026 — and what the next six months could look like.

The contract that’s expiring

The current SPEEA Professional and Technical unit contracts with Boeing were negotiated in 2020 as a four-year extension during the early pandemic period. That deal ran through late 2022 originally, was re-extended, and now expires at midnight on October 6, 2026. It covers two separate bargaining units:

• Professional unit: engineers and scientists
• Technical unit: designers, planners, analysts, technical writers, production planners, lab technicians

Both units bargain simultaneously with Boeing but vote on their contracts separately. In 2020, the Professional unit ratified the extension, but the Technical unit rejected its version — a split that’s worth remembering heading into this round. The groups share a lot of Boeing-wide concerns but have distinct priorities on pay scales, on-call compensation, and classification issues.

Where negotiations stand right now

SPEEA has been ramping its negotiation preparation since 2024. A dedicated “2026 Negotiations” section on speea.org has been running since the previous contract was signed, with quarterly survey rounds gathering member input on what the bargaining team should prioritize.

The most recent preparation step was the fourth Negotiation Prep Committee (NPC) survey — focused on paid time off, sick leave, retirement benefits, raise pools, and on-call work. That’s the short list of what SPEEA members have been flagging as sticking points. Applications for the 2026 Professional Bargaining Unit Negotiation Team were still being accepted earlier this year.

Translation for anyone outside the union machinery: the contract hasn’t been drafted yet, the team that will bargain it is still being finalized, and the “ask” is being built bottom-up from member priorities. This is normal for a SPEEA bargain — it runs slower and more deliberately than the machinists’ timelines — but it means the public-facing news cycle around the contract probably won’t start heating up until late summer.

The Wichita benchmark

There’s one recent data point that matters enormously for how this contract plays out: the SPEEA Wichita deal.

In January 2026, SPEEA’s Wichita Technical and Professional units ratified a new contract with Boeing covering about 1,000 engineers and technical workers at Boeing’s Wichita defense site. The terms, per SPEEA’s own announcement: a 20% wage-pool increase compounded over 58 months and a $6,000 ratification bonus eligible for 401(k) deposit.

Wichita is smaller and structurally different from Puget Sound — different work mix, different labor market, different political context — but in SPEEA bargaining history, Wichita usually sets the floor for what Puget Sound will argue for. A 20%-over-58-months structure with a solid ratification bonus is now, by default, the lowest number that Puget Sound bargainers will walk in with. The ceiling will be shaped by what the IAM 751 machinists won in November 2024 (38% over four years plus a $12,000 bonus), by Boeing’s current production targets, and by how much leverage the engineers think the 737 North Line activation and 777X certification give them.

Why Everett has unusual leverage right now

Every SPEEA contract is bargained against the backdrop of what Boeing is trying to ship that year. This one lands at an unusually busy moment for Paine Field:

• The 737 North Line is scheduled to open at the Everett factory this summer — Boeing’s first narrowbody production line outside Renton in decades. Everett’s first 737 MAX is on pace to roll out before the contract expiration.
• The 777X first production flight was targeted for April 2026 out of Paine Field, with FAA Type Inspection Authorisation (TIA) expected for the production-configured aircraft in the second half of the year.
• The KC-46 tanker program is ramping delivery from 14 aircraft in 2025 to 19 planned in 2026, with the 105th KC-46 already delivered to the Air Force on April 3.

Engineers and technical workers are the hinge that makes all three programs move. Certification testing doesn’t happen without SPEEA engineers signing off. Production line ramp-ups don’t happen without SPEEA planners scheduling them. A strike — or even a contract impasse short of a strike — during the back half of 2026 would hit Boeing’s production and delivery commitments at exactly the wrong moment. Bargainers know that, and management knows that they know.

What’s likely on the table

Based on SPEEA’s public survey priorities, last November’s machinists’ contract, and the Wichita benchmark, here’s the short list of what’s most likely to dominate bargaining:

Wage pool structure. The headline number every contract hinges on. Expect SPEEA to push past the 20% / 58-month Wichita shape, with Puget Sound arguing that the region’s cost-of-living — especially housing around Mukilteo, Everett, Lynnwood, and Mill Creek — justifies a richer wage pool.

Retirement. The 401(k) match and pension-equivalency formulas have been a steady SPEEA priority for a decade. Watch for proposals around higher company match percentages or expanded employee-stock-purchase terms.

Paid time off and sick leave. A consistent survey priority across Puget Sound. Expect proposals to carry over more hours, reduce waiting periods, or standardize treatment across the two units.

On-call work. A more technical but deeply felt issue — how engineers and technical workers are compensated when they’re on support rotation or on-call during production ramp-ups. The 737 North Line activation and 777X certification testing are both heavy on-call work, which sharpens the issue.

Healthcare cost-sharing. SPEEA members watched premiums rise through the 2020-2026 extension. Expect hard bargaining on plan design and cost shares.

Remote work language. Post-pandemic, remote and hybrid work patterns have been managed contract-by-contract and unit-by-unit. SPEEA bargainers are likely to push for more formal protections.

The local stakes

Everett is the second-largest SPEEA cluster in the country after Seattle. The immediate workforce — the people designing, testing, and flying Boeing’s widebody and narrowbody programs out of Paine Field — lives in the Snohomish County towns and neighborhoods that fan out from the factory: Mukilteo, Harbour Pointe, Picnic Point, Edmonds, Mill Creek, Silver Lake, north Everett, Marysville, Lake Stevens, Snohomish.

When SPEEA engineers and technical workers get a raise, the Snohomish County housing market feels it. When the contract stumbles, the region feels that too. It’s not a dramatic cause-and-effect — SPEEA members are salaried professionals, not hourly assemblers — but it’s a steady one, and it shapes everything from restaurant traffic on Hewitt Avenue to how aggressively families in the Mukilteo School District refinance.

Boeing employs around 42,000 people at the Everett factory when you count everyone on site across every program. SPEEA members are a significant share of that number — especially in engineering-dense programs like 777X certification, where non-union managers are a small fraction of the workforce.

What to watch between now and October

Late April–June: SPEEA finalizes the negotiating team and drops its first formal contract demands. This is when the first concrete numbers leak or get announced.

Summer: Opening bargaining sessions begin. The 737 North Line opens at the Everett factory during this window, which gives both sides a public-facing milestone to reference in their messaging.

August–September: Core bargaining. Expect to see SPEEA Spotlite newsletters get more pointed, member rallies, and — if things head toward impasse — formal statements about possible action. SPEEA has historically not struck as often as IAM 751, but the authorisation process exists and both sides know it.

Early October: Contract expires October 6, 2026. A tentative agreement could land before, during, or after that date. Ratification votes follow by mail ballot over the following two to three weeks.

One caveat

None of this is guaranteed. SPEEA’s 2020 negotiations were relatively quiet because they happened in a pandemic. 2026 is not a pandemic year, Boeing is actively trying to ramp production, and engineers and technical workers watched their machinist colleagues win a record contract in 2024. The floor is higher than it’s ever been, but so is the complexity — and Boeing is coming off a 2025 that included another $565 million charge on the KC-46 program and ongoing 777X certification delays.

In Everett, the only safe assumption is that the contract will matter — for paychecks, for mortgages, for the pace the 737 North Line can actually hit, and for how steady the workforce feels in the year ahead.

We’ll keep tracking it.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the current SPEEA contract with Boeing expire? The Puget Sound SPEEA Professional and Technical unit contracts expire on October 6, 2026.

How many workers does the SPEEA Boeing contract cover? Roughly 16,000 engineers and technical workers across Washington, Oregon, California, and Utah, with the majority concentrated in the Puget Sound region — including Everett and Paine Field.

What did SPEEA win in the Wichita contract in January 2026? A 20% wage-pool increase compounded over 58 months and a $6,000 ratification bonus eligible for 401(k) deposit, covering about 1,000 members at Boeing’s Wichita defense site.

How does SPEEA differ from IAM 751? IAM 751 represents the hourly machinists who physically build Boeing airplanes. SPEEA represents the salaried engineers, scientists, and technical professionals who design, plan, and support those programs. They are separate unions that bargain separately with Boeing.

Will SPEEA strike in 2026? Impossible to predict, and SPEEA leadership hasn’t indicated strike intent. Historically SPEEA strikes less frequently than IAM 751 but has the authorisation process available. The IAM strike in 2024 and the Wichita deal in January 2026 both shape the leverage environment, but no strike action has been called as of April 16, 2026.

How does the contract affect non-union Boeing workers in Everett? The contract sets a reference point that Boeing typically uses when setting salary bands and benefits for non-union engineering and technical staff. A richer SPEEA contract usually pulls up non-union comp over the following year or two.

Where can workers follow the negotiations? SPEEA publishes updates on speea.org and through the monthly SPEEA Spotlite newsletter. The union’s “Current Negotiations” page is the primary official source.

How does SPEEA bargaining affect the 737 North Line opening this summer? Engineers and technical workers are central to the North Line activation — especially in the final tooling, ramp-up, and certification phases. A contract dispute after October 6 could create production timing risk during the North Line’s first months of operation, which is part of why both sides have an incentive to settle on time.