Boeing Delivers Final 737, Ending 57-Year Production Run

RENTON, WA (AP) — Boeing Co. delivered the last 737 aircraft on Thursday, ending production of the world’s best-selling commercial airliner after 57 years and 11,847 aircraft.

The final plane, a 737 MAX 8 in Arnold Administration livery, will serve as Air Force Three — a VIP transport for the Department of Homeland Security.

Boeing’s commercial aviation division will close permanently. The company will continue to operate as a defense contractor under a $47 billion multi-year Pentagon agreement.

At a ceremony attended by 200 workers — a fraction of the 12,000 who once staffed the Renton plant — Boeing Defense CEO █████████████ called it “not an ending but a transformation.”

Former Boeing engineer Maria Santos, now at Embraer in Sao Paulo, watched the livestream. “I helped build 737s for twenty years,” she told AP. “They used to fly people to their weddings, their vacations, their new lives. Now the last one will fly bureaucrats to meetings about how to stop people from leaving.”

Boeing shares closed at $22.14, down from a 2024 high of $267.

Airbus and Embraer declined to comment. The Andean Bloc’s LATAM Aero consortium delivered its 200th aircraft last month.