Boeing’s next step up in Dreamliner production in North Charleston will come later than the company planned.

In its quarterly report filed Oct. 27, Boeing said it decided during the third quarter to delay planned 787 production rate increases. The next increase beyond eight airplanes a month is now planned to begin in December, the company said.

Every 787 is assembled at Boeing South Carolina. When Boeing broke ground on an expansion there in November 2025, it said the site was set to increase production to 10 airplanes a month in 2026.

“Delays in planned production rate increases are adversely affecting our financial position, results of operations and cash flows,” Boeing said in the filing.

Engines set the pace

The 787 program “remains stable at a production rate of 8 per month,” Boeing said in its third-quarter earnings release the same day.

On a call with analysts, CEO Kelly Ortberg said the factory was performing well and pointed to engines as the constraint.

“We are seeing increased stability in our supply chain and closely watching engine delivery performance as it remains the pacing item for rate 10,” Ortberg said, according to a transcript Boeing posted on its investor website. He said Boeing still expects to start the transition to 10 a month this year.

Ortberg had warned in May that Boeing would need to see an engine recovery plan “come to fruition before we can get to ‘rate 10,’” The Post and Courier reported.

GE Aerospace, one of two engine makers for the 787, said it handed over more than 50 GEnx engines to the North Charleston factory last quarter, the newspaper reported Oct. 28. GE CEO Larry Culp called that a “sequential increase” over the previous three months. Rolls-Royce is the other supplier.

Deliveries trail the plan

Boeing delivered 22 787s in the third quarter, down from 24 a year earlier, according to its earnings release. It has delivered 62 this year, compared with 61 through September 2025.

Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said Boeing still expects to deliver 90 to 100 787s this year, “but expect it to be closer to the lower end, given the delays in getting to rate 10.”

Ortberg said delivery timing has been uneven from month to month because of trouble getting airline seats certified.

Demand is not the constraint. Boeing had 1,128 undelivered 787s on firm order at the end of September, up from 1,026 at the end of 2025, according to the filing.

The Charleston expansion

Later rate increases will depend on finishing expansion projects underway at the Charleston site and on suppliers’ ability to support higher rates, Boeing said in the filing.

“In Charleston, our factory expansion is underway, and we expect the majority of the capability to come online late next year,” Malave said on the call. He said the second final assembly building will add a third production line to the two in the current building.

Boeing valued the expansion at more than $1 billion when it broke ground Nov. 7, 2025, and said it would add more than 1,000 jobs over five years. The centerpiece is a second final assembly building about the size of the first, roughly 1.2 million square feet. The plans also include a parts preparation building, a paint facility for vertical fins, flight line stalls and additions to the Interiors Responsibility Center, which makes many of the jet’s interior parts, Boeing said. A joint venture of HITT Contracting and BE&K Building Group is building the project.

The spending shows in Boeing’s books. The company spent $1.03 billion on property, plant and equipment in the third quarter, up from $885 million a year earlier, mainly reflecting higher investments at its Charleston and St. Louis sites, according to the release. Malave said capital spending will rise to about $5 billion in 2027 before easing to about $4 billion a year in 2028 and 2029.

Further out

Boeing gave investors a target of $10 billion in free cash flow in 2029. Malave said the company expects to be producing about 12 787s a month that year.

For the quarter, Boeing reported a net loss of $116 million on revenue of $24.2 billion. Its Commercial Airplanes unit, which includes the 787, lost $697 million from operations on revenue of $10.7 billion.

Boeing said in November 2025 that Boeing South Carolina employed more than 8,200 people in North Charleston and Orangeburg.