The Boeing Co. is hitting on all cylinders and will maintain its employment level in Everett if not increase it during the next two years, the planemaker’s plant manager said Thursday.
“Unless we get some kind of external shock we will be at the level where we are for the next couple years with maybe a little bit of growth,” said Ross Bogue, a Boeing vice president who is general manager of the Everett site and the 747, 767, 777 and 787 programs.
Bogue made his comments at a luncheon program organized by the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the facility’s 40th anniversary.
But Bogue had some wide-ranging comments under questions by program moderator Molly Shen of KOMO TV news in Seattle.
Bogue said some 25,000 people work at the Everett plant, which he referred to as “the crown jewel for us to assemble airplanes.”
Noting that Boeing had spent the last 18 months developing a 20-year plan for the facility, he said it is the company’s intention “to be there for a long, long time to come.
“We want the plant to be capable for integrating, painting and delivering for the next 20 years,” he added.
Asked to assess each line of jets assembled in Everett, Bogue had this to say:
747: The plane first assembled 40 years ago is going through a development evolution in the form of the new 747-8. It still carries 60 percent of the world’s freight, and the new version will be technically and economically efficient.
767: Once thought to have ended its run, the 767 has generated some pent-up demand and is the proposed airframe for a new U.S. military refueling tanker program that would give it a long life. “Not getting it all fuzzed up with other issues is the big hurdle,” he said, alluding to the fact that Boeing had ethics and legal issues during the previous tanker competition.
777: Thought by analysts to be a competitor to both the 787 and Airbus’ new A350, Bogue said it has two new models and is now at peak production rates. He promised that Boeing won’t sit back to let the A350 steal orders from the 777 and is planning to come up with a model that will take on the new Airbus offering. “We’re waiting to see what our friends in France want to do with the A350,” he said. “We believe one model will be specifically targeted for the 777. We’re not done (with the 777),” he said.
787: Responding to recent criticisms from a former employee that the composite body of the new 787 would shatter on impact, Bogue said that’s neither his view nor that of aviation’s technical community. Asked if he’d put his family in one, he said quickly: “Absolutely. Without question.”
Bogue said the new Dreamliner takes the passenger experience to a higher level and is the beginning of the next generation of great aircraft. He said the program is going “fabulously well,” although he acknowledged a previously announced setback in getting the first plane assembled and tested. The plane will meet its May delivery deadline, he said, adding about its first flight, “The plane will fly when it is ready to fly.”
Bogue was asked about the recent announcement saying the Everett plant had delivered its 3,000th jet.
“I’m not so sure that the little site in Everett when it first got started ever envisioned delivering that many aircraft around the world,” he relied. That’s a pretty big number with 80 percent still flying.”
Responding to another question, Bogue said the company and its employees take Boeing’s relationship with the community seriously.
“There’s a fundamental value among the teammates at Boeing that we are exceedingly blessed for what we do and that some of that needs to be turned back to the community,” he said. “Post 9/11, the company shed almost 35,000 of our teammates and our giving per employee went up year after year. They get it and I couldn’t be prouder of them for what they do.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
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