Plane geeks rejoice! The much-loved behind-the-scenes tour of the Boeing Everett production line near Seattle is finally reopening to the public for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
On Thursday, the Boeing Future of Flight Museum, which runs the tour, announced that tickets have finally gone back on sale, with the first tour slated to begin on October 5, 2023.
Visitors will get exclusive access to the largest manufacturing building in the world where the iconic Boeing 777 and 767 aircraft models are still made, and from late 2024, the factory will also be home to the Boeing 737MAX-10 production line.
Boeing abruptly closed the factory to the general public in March 2020 at the very start of the pandemic, and while the Future of Flight Museum was able to reopen the following year there was no indication of when the factory tour would resume.
Unfortunately, over the course of the last three years, Boeing’s Everett facility has certainly seen a lot of changes.
At the end of 2022, the last ever Boeing 747 jumbojet rolled off the production, marking the end of a decades-long era. In fact, the Everett factory, located around 25 miles from downtown Seattle, was originally built in 1967 specifically to manufacture the 747.
Since then, the factory has been extended to cover more than 98.3 acres and comprises 472 million cubic feet of space.
Just before the pandemic, the factory was not only home to the Boeing 777 and 767 lines but also the 747 and 787 Dreamliner lines.
Of course, production of the 747 has now ended forever, while Boeing decided to shift all U.S. manufacturing of the 787 Dreamliner to its Charleston facility in South Carolina.
The Future of Flight promises, however, that there’s still lots to see during the 80-minute tour, along with the museum itself and the Skydeck giving visitors a panoramic view of Paine Field.
Tickets for the factory tour have been temporarily discounted to just $33 for regular admission and the Museum of Flight recommends early booking as tickets can quickly sell out.
