Boeing started parking 737 MAX planes in Renton employee parking lot

If you thought finding where you parked your car was difficult after exiting a shopping center, try working at Boeing in Renton.

Space is so tight at Boeing’s Renton plant that the company is has started parking 737 MAX jets in the employee parking lot. There are more than 150 new and grounded 737 MAX jets on site.

“Boeing is still maintaining output at 42 per month, only slightly down from the 52 maximum rate they intended,” said aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. “Month-after-month of production, but no delivery to the end user is going to produce traffic jams and strange scenes like these.”

Images of the planes in employee parking spaces emerged after KING 5 initially shared video of the Renton plant, taken from its chopper. One scene shows planes overtaking the parking lot.

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The MAX has been grounded since March after two fatal crashes occurred within a year. The problem requires a software fix.

It could be the end of the year, or later, before Boeing’s most popular plane gets back in the air. But the headache won’t end there. Boeing has kept the supply of airplane components high, leading to a major surplus. So it will be a while before the company digs out from this pileup.

“They are going to keep doing this, until the aircraft is re-certified and deliveries … can resume,” Aboulafia said. “They’ve obtained some temporary permission to fly to overflow fields. So places in say Victorville, California are also seeing traffic buildup.”

“You could imagine what it looks like behind the scenes, because all the suppliers for the program have been told to keep up output for 52 a month, so there are fuselages and engines and whatever else that are also waiting for end use,” he said. “…They’ll have to clear the parking lots, clear the overflow fields, clear the factory, and use up any surplus fuselages, and other components that go into these jets, so from a logistical standpoint, it’s going to be a huge challenge.”

KIRO Radio’s Jillian Raftery contributed to this report.

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