Boeing to Spend $1B to Expand 787 Dreamliner Complex

Boeing plans to invest $1 billion and hire 500 workers in South Carolina, as it expands manufacturing of its 787 Dreamliner to capture surging demand for wide-body jets.

The project announced on December 13 includes an additional final-assembly plant at Boeing’s campus near Charleston International Airport, where it already builds the carbon-composite aircraft. Operations should be online by early 2027, the company said. Boeing also plans other projects in the region, including an expansion of a nearby interiors center.

Boeing is plowing money into South Carolina, where workers are not unionized, a month after reaching an agreement to end a costly and contentious 53-day walkout by machinists at its traditional Seattle manufacturing hub. The manufacturer’s CEO Kelly Ortberg also spearheaded an effort to raise $24 billion to help ease the financial strain from the strike and an earlier drop in 737 production, after a panel blew off an airborne plane in January.

The planemaker established its campus in North Charleston in 2009, months after the previous strike by its machinists in the Pacific Northwest.

The company shifted all of its 787 manufacturing to South Carolina in 2021, and a year later unveiled plans to add a second final assembly line to its existing plant. At the time, executives told reporters that they intended to build 10 of the jets each month by 2025. Boeing said on December 13 that it expects to reach that target by 2026.

Output has been stuck at half that pace as Boeing contends with shortages of seats, heat exchangers and other components.