Thursday October 29, 03:23 AM
Boeing picks S.Carolina from new Dreamliner plant
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US aerospace giant Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) has chosen the state of South Carolina as the location for a second production line for the troubled 787 Dreamliner long-haul jet, the company said Wednesday.
The move "will expand our production capability to meet the market demand for the airplane," Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement.
"This decision allows us to continue building on the synergies we have established in South Carolina with Boeing Charleston and Global Aeronautica," he said, the latter being a company 50-percent owned by Boeing.
Boeing's South Carolina plant already assembles and installs parts of the 787 fuselage sections. Almost all Boeing planes are manufactured at its Everett plant outside Seattle, in the northwest state of Washington.
Delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner -- to Japanese launch customer ANA -- is now set for late 2010, more than two years behind schedule.
The company said that until the second assembly line is brought up to speed, Boeing will "establish transitional surge capability" in Everett that will be phased out once South Carolina comes online.
The move to South Carolina puts employees there out of the reach of the union in Washington state that has had several contentious labor disputes in recent decades with Boeing management.
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