Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of the Boeing Company and designs, assembles, markets, and sells commercial aircraft, including the 737, 767, 777, and 787, along with freighter and business jet variants of most. The division employs nearly 35,000 people, many working at the company's division headquarters in Renton, Washington, or at more than a dozen engineering, manufacturing, and assembly facilities, notably the Everett Factory and Renton Factory (both outside of Seattle), and the South Carolina Factory.

It includes the assets of the Douglas Aircraft division of the former McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which merged with Boeing in 1997.[3] As of the end of 2021, BCA employed about 35,926 people.[1]

Organization

Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is organized as:[4]

Airplane Programs

Boeing Renton Factory – 737

Boeing Everett Factory – 767 and 777

Boeing South Carolina – 787

Fabrication Division

Global Partners

Propulsion Systems

Commercial Aviation Services

BCA subsidiaries:

Aeroinfo Systems[5]

Aviall[6]

Aviation Partners Boeing,[7] a 50/50 joint venture with Aviation Partners Inc.

Boeing Canada

Boeing Capital

Boeing Training & Flight Services (was Alteon Training)[8]

CDG[9]

Jeppesen, formerly Jeppesen Sanderson.

Preston Aviation Solutions[10]

Management

In November 2016, Boeing announced that Ray Conner would step down immediately as BCA's president and CEO.[11] He was succeeded by Kevin G. McAllister,[12] who was the first outside recruitment in BCA history. McAllister was instructed by Dennis Muilenburg to triple revenue from aftermarket services from $15 billion to a target of $50 billion over 10 years, with a new purpose-built unit headed by Stan Deal.[11] Keith Leverkuhn was the vice president and general manager of the 737 MAX program in March 2017 when it received certification.[13]

McAllister was eventually ousted by Boeing in October 2019, in the midst of a company crisis following two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX jets. Stan Deal succeeded him in both of his positions.[14][15][16] One insider called McAllister a "scapegoat" as he had only joined BCA during the later stages of the 737 MAX's development.[15] In March 2024, Deal was in turn replaced by Stephanie Pope, formerly head of the Boeing Global Services division.[17]

In December 2024, Boeing announced that it would be laying off over 500 workers in California due to over $6 billion in losses during the third quarter of 2024 caused by worker strikes and other delays.[18][19][20]

Products

Model naming convention

See also: List of Boeing customer codes

For all models sold beginning with the Boeing 707 in 1957, except the Boeing 720, Boeing's naming system for commercial airliners has taken the form of 7X7 (X representing a number). All model designations from 707 through 787 have been assigned, leaving 797 as the only 7X7 model name not assigned to a product.[21]

For models 707 to 777, the full model number consists of an airplane's model number, for example, 707 or 747, followed by a hyphen and three digits that represent the series within the model, for example, 707-320 or 747-400. In aviation circles, a more specific model designation is sometimes used where the last two digits of the series designator are replaced by the two-digit, alpha-numeric Boeing customer code, for example, 747-121, representing a 747-100 originally ordered by Pan American World Airways (Boeing customer code 21) or 737-7H4, representing a 737-700 originally ordered by Southwest Airlines (Boeing customer code H4). Codes do not change for aircraft transferred from one airline to another. Unlike other models, the 787 uses a single digit to designate the series, for example, 787-8. This convention was followed in the development of the newest version of the 747, the 747-8, along with the 737 MAX and 777X series.[citation needed]

Additional letters are sometimes appended to the model name as a suffix, including "ER" to designate an "extended range" version, such as the 777-300ER, or "LR" to designate a "long range" version, for example 777-200LR. Other suffix designators include "F" for "freighter" (747-400F), "C" for "convertible" aircraft that can be converted between a passenger and freighter configuration (727-100C), "SR" or "D" for "short range" and "domestic" (747-400D, 747SR), and "M" for "combi" aircraft that are configured to carry both passengers and freight at the same time (757-200M, 747-400M). Passenger aircraft that are originally manufactured as passenger aircraft and later converted to freighter configuration by Boeing carry the suffix "BCF" designating a Boeing converted freighter (747-400BCF).