Boeing has restarted production on all its aircraft programs that were paused for over a month following a seven-week strike by 33,000 machinists on the US West Coast.
On December 18, 2024, Stephanie Pope, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Boeing, announced on LinkedIn that production had resumed for the 737, 767, and 777/777X programs.
“Our teammates have worked methodically to warm up our factories in the Pacific Northwest, using Boeing’s Safety Management System to identify and address potential issues and ensure a safe and orderly restart,” Pope said.
The planemaker previously announced that on December 6, 2024, it had restarted the production of its best-selling 737 MAX jetliners.
According to its order book, Boeing currently has around 4,818 orders for the 737 MAX, 103 orders for 767, 562 orders for 777, and 785 orders for 787 aircraft, making a total of 6,268 unfilled orders from airlines.
Production was halted because of a seven-week strike by 33,000 Boeing workers, starting on September 13, 2024. The strike ended in November 2024, after 58% of union members approved a new pay deal that will see salary rise by 38%.
The manufacturer is still dealing with the consequences of the strike, which led to a net loss of $6.17 billion in the third quarter of 2024. Additionally, in October 2024, Boeing revealed that it would send 60-day layoff notices to around 17,000 workers, which is about 10% of its total workforce. Layoffs are currently ongoing, having already impacted 2,199 workers in Washington state and 692 employees in Missouri state.
Boeing was already facing challenges before the strike due to an incident in January 2024, when a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737-9 aircraft shortly after takeoff.
This raised serious concerns about Being’s safety and quality standards in aircraft manufacturing. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricted the production of the Boeing 737 MAX to 38 aircraft each month after the incident.