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(Reuters) - Boeing said on Thursday it plans to spend $1 billion to support increased production of its 787 Dreamliner widebody jets, as the U.S. planemaker works to meet an earlier output target of 10 a month by 2026.
Boeing plans to expand operations at its Charleston County, South Carolina, facility with the $1 billion investment in infrastructure upgrades and the creation of 500 new jobs over five years, the planemaker said in a joint announcement with the South Carolina Department of Commerce.
The investment and expansion lay the groundwork for "potential future rate increases driven by market demand," Boeing said. The U.S. planemaker faces pressure from European rival Airbus which has announced plans to raise output of its competing A350 to 12 a month by 2028.
After a prolonged lull, demand for widebody planes is accelerating sharply as airlines renew capacity as demand grows for international travel.
Boeing is trying to ramp up plane output to generate needed cash, after a crippling strike this autumn halted production of all but its Dreamliner jets.
Boeing's announcement reaffirms an earlier target of 10 Dreamliner jets a month announced during a company investor day in 2022. Hitting that rate would be a steep climb for the planemaker, given existing production levels and challenges as Boeing wrestles with manufacturing quality problems.
Boeing has been trying to bring 787 production back to a rate of five a month by the end of 2024, after scaling back output earlier this year due to supply-chain delays in getting seats and heat exchangers. Boeing has said its 787 production rate was five per month during the last quarter of 2023.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Pooja Desai and Matthew Lewis)
