Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Boeing starts the 787 production expansion in Charleston
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 18, 2025, © Leeham News: In our July 16 Article “ Boeing ponders 16/mo production rate for 787,” we concluded that Boeing needed to expand its present 787 plant in Charleston, South Carolina, to reach a rate of 16 Dreamliners per month before the end of the decade.
The Charleston Post and Courier reported on August 9th that Boeing has started the $1 billion expansion of the Charleston site. The article presents a Boeing rendering of the expanded site with the planned new buildings.
Figure 1 shows the rendering where we have marked the added buildings and site expansion.
Figure 1. The Boeing 787 production site south of the Charleston International Airport. Source: Boeing.
The new FAL building is essentially a copy of the present FAL, doubling the final assembly line capacity for the 787. Boeing has reached rate seven and plans to be at rate 10 per month next year.
The expansion is planned to be finished in 2028, after which Boeing will have the facilities to reach a rate of 16 787 per month.
Do global airlines need 500 widebodies delivered a year?
need to wonder if 16 787 a month (e.g. 200 a year) is what the market needs! Then add 777x to the widebody mix (e.g. 100 a year), does the global airline industry really need 300 Boeing widebodies a year? Then add 12 a month for A350 (e.g. 150 a year) and 4 a month for A330 (e.g. 50 a year) 200 Airbus widebodies a year.
Emirates and Qatar are bombarding me with special offers — would they be doing that if business were good?
Now add all the new planes they have on order…
…plus the mega-orders from Air India
…plus the new orders from Saudi Arabia
…plus the widebodies ordered by Turkish
…and that’s just in/near the Middle East.
Did somebody say “glut”…?
So far, it looks like vaporware to me.
Show us, don’t tell us, Boeing.