Boeing could increase production rates of its popular single-aisle 737 aircraft beyond the already announced 38 per month, RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Stallard said in an analyst’s note today.
Stallard took part in a meeting with Boeing senior management in Chicago, including Boeing CEO Jim McNerney.
McNerney said an announcement of a further rate increase could come in the first half of 2011, given the plane’s robust demand, Stallard wrote.
That increase would impact Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the 737′s fuselage.
Boeing has announced that it is raising production of the 737 from 31.5 per month to 35 by early 2012, followed by another boost to 38 per month in the second quarter of 2013.
Boeing management also reiterated that the company is more likely to replace the 737NG in about 2020 rather than develop new engines, Stallard wrote.
McNerney also said that production for the 777 has the potential to go beyond seven aircraft per month and that a 777 upgrade could be pushed out to the end of the decade.
