China News Service/Getty Images
Boeing has resumed its production across its range of aircraft in the Pacific Northwest factories as it gets back online following its lengthy and costly strike.
The aviation giant, which had already resumed production of its 737 Max jets, has now restarted building the 767 and 777 models again, Stephanie Pope, Boeing's COO and the CEO and president of its commercial planes division, said in a LinkedIn post.
The news follows an announcement last week that Boeing would commit $1 billion to its 787 Dreamliner manufacturing plant in South Carolina.
"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," she wrote in the post.
The aircraft manufacturing giant hopes to ramp up production in what has been a difficult year. In January, an Alaska Airlines flight lost a door plug during a flight, injuring several passengers and resulting in an emergency landing.
The incident highlighted Boeing's production processes and led to questions about its quality control, which led then-CEO Dave Calhoun to resign.
Boeing was also hit with several lawsuits related to the Alaska Airlines incident, as well as facing renewed scrutiny over two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Its problems were compounded when over 30,000 factory workers went on strike for nearly seven weeks beginning in September.
Boeing now has a backlog of around 5,400 commercial aircraft worth roughly $428 billion.
"We have taken time to ensure all manufacturing teammates are current on training and certifications, while positioning inventory at the optimal levels for smooth production," Pope said in the post.
"As we move forward, we will closely track our production health performance indicators and focus on delivering safe, high-quality airplanes on time to our customers," she added.
