Plans Are For The Capability To Build The 787-8 And -9 In Charleston

The senior Boeing executive in charge of the planemaker's supply chain says the company's new assembly facility in Charleston, SC, could someday operate on a par with the company's Seattle operation.

Ray Conner said in a briefing Sunday at the Paris Air Show that he foresees a day when both the 787-8 and 787-9 are assembled in Charleston. The Seattle Times reports that Conner said that the SC facility offers greater flexibility in production due to the absence of a union.

The paper reports that Commercial Airplane CEO Jim Albaugh said recently that there would be plenty of work for both the east and west coast operations, and that workers in the Puget Sound region should not feel threatened by the South Carolina facility.

Conner told reporters that with just "a little bit of work" the Charleston assembly plant could produce as many as seven planes per month. The answer was in response to a question about a natural disaster such as an earthquake hitting the Pacific Northwest area, but many saw it as a somewhat thinly-veiled reference to a labor strike.

FMI: www.boeing.com