Boeing looks to boost 737 production

Boeing Co. is “taking a hard look” at boosting monthly output of its best-selling 737-model jet to 42 planes a month, an increase of 11 percent from its current plan, to meet rising demand.

A seven-year backlog of orders is “too big,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Jim Albaugh said today in Scottsdale, Arizona. Chicago-based Boeing is sold out of 737 delivery slots through 2016, he said.

“When the market changes and we have blue-chip customers that want airplanes and we have to tell them to come back in five or six years, that's not a good answer,” Albaugh said at the annual conference of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading.

Boeing has been ramping up production of the twin-engine, single-aisle 737 as airlines and leasing companies renew efforts to refresh their fleets since the end of the recession. Output is now 31.5 each month and is scheduled to rise in two steps to 38 jets by 2013.

The 737 probably will be in production for as long as 20 more years, even as Boeing considers a replacement model and leaves open the possibility of upgrading the current jet with new engines, Albaugh said. The 737 entered service in 1968.