SEATTLE, WA – Boeing ceremoniously broke ground on a $1 billion expansion of its Charleston-area manufacturing campus, as the aerospace giant works to bolster production of the South Carolina-built 787 Dreamliner.

Crews have already begun work on the second assembly facility that mimics the complex’s existing final production line.

Dignitaries, including Gov. Henry McMaster, members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, were on hand Friday to officially celebrate the much-needed buildout as global demand for the 787 takes flight.

“This expansion enables us to go to (production) rates that we only dreamed of in the past,” said Lisa Fahl, engineering vice president for the 787. “It’s huge. We’re doubling the size of the flight line. We’re doubling the size of the factory. We could one day have four production lines running concurrently.”

The company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, also announced it is doubling the number of jobs associated with the expansion since it was first announced last December. It’s now pledging to hire 1,000 people in the next few years.

Production in the new building is expected to begin in 2028.

The latest expansion will bring Boeing’s total capital investment in South Carolina to more than $3 billion since the company opened its Palmetto State location in 2011. As of 2024, the company employed more than 8,250 workers in the state across its North Charleston and Orangeburg facilities.

The North Charleston factory recently raised its production pace to seven Dreamliners a month, up from five per month in the first half of the year.

The company expects to reach a monthly rate of eight planes by the end of December, CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors on a quarterly earnings call last week.

Boeing is aiming for 10 planes a month in 2026 as it works to fill its growing backlog of orders, Ortberg added, though supply issues may make that a struggle. And the new assembly building will eventually push that even higher.

“If we thought capping at 10 was as far as we go, we would not be investing in expanding Charleston,” Ortberg said in response to analysts’ questions.

Boeing’s 787 production peak was previously 14 jets a month in 2018, when the work was split between North Charleston and the company’s original Seattle-area facility.

South Carolina became the company’s 787 hub in 2021, after the Seattle line closed.

Meanwhile, new orders for the commercial aircraft have soared to 314 through Sept. 30, compared to 64 for all of 2024. The backlog was up to 1,048 planes at the time of the last earnings announcement.

Boeing inked a record-breaking deal with Qatar Airways for 130 Dreamliners in May, as well as a smaller with British Airways for 32 of the planes.

Gulf Air signed on for up to 18 Dreamliners in July.

And the day of the groundbreaking, Boeing rolled out even more deals: 15 Dreamliners for Kazakhstan’s Air Astana, four for Tajikistan’s Somon Air and Uzbekistan Airways exercised an option to add eight more Dreamliners to a previous order.

Bessent, a native of Little River, credited President Donald Trump and the administration’s trade policies with aiding Boeing in its recent success.

“If you follow trade news, you’ll notice a constant trend,” he told the crowd of Boeing employees Friday. “Where there’s a Trump trade deal, there’s a Boeing sale.”

Boeing signed the Qatar contract on the heels of Trump’s visit to the country.

“That deal set the tone for those that have followed,” Bessent said. “At the president’s urging, South Korea announced it would purchase 103 Boeing aircraft, Japan announced it would purchase 100 and countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia announced they would purchase dozens of their own.”

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