Boeing set to move headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, sources say

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE –

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Boeing will move its corporate headquarters to Arlington in Virginia from Chicago. said.

As Boeing struggles to overcome successive crises, industrial problems, and deepen its focus on relationships with customers, U.S. regulators, and lawmakers, the move could be made as early as next weekend.

Moving to Arlington, across the Potomac River to the U.S capital, will bring Boeing’s senior leaders closer to the Federal Aviation Administration and lawmakers as well as the Pentagon.

Boeing representatives did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Reuters reported that Boeing’s Chicago future and the direction it intends to go as it tries to regain momentum last October, citing sources close by the company.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Boeing’s decision to relocate earlier.

Boeing has been trying to repair relations with the FAA since Dennis Muilenburg, its previous CEO, was fired in 2019. This happened after Muilenburg clashed the FAA’s review of the 737 MAX. The FAA had already reviewed the 737 MAX two times that resulted in the deaths of 346 people.

Boeing already has an Arlington location. It opened in 2014, and it has large amounts of unused space. It is only blocks from Amazon’s new HQ2 building, which is still under construction.

Chicago Headquarters – a 36-story, US$200m riverfront skyscraper – has been at the crossroads in a cost-cutting campaign. Boeing has had to sell real estate including its Seattle commercial aircraft headquarters.

Boeing relocated its headquarters to Chicago in 2001. This was after leaving Seattle, where it had lived for 85 years.

Boeing sought a post-merger headquarters at a neutral site, separate from existing divisional power centres.

Over the past 20 years, Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois have given Boeing more than US$60million in tax and other incentives to relocate. These credits are now expired but Boeing was to receive funds in 2021.

Some critics thought the Chicago move was an emblem of a company who valued shareholder returns and near-term profits more than long-term engineering dominance, a charge that was repeated after the 737 MAX crashes.

The symbol of a new Boeing was once the Boeing emblem. However, the vision of a corporate epicenter rising above the rest of its parts has been displaced by the need to regain engineering dominance and repair relationships with customers and federal regulators.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun made frequent visits to the 787 Dreamliner factory at South Carolina in order to fix production-related problems that had hampered this program. 

Calhoun is also trying to get certification for the largest variants of the 737 MAX, before a new safety standard regarding cockpit alerts takes place at year-end. He hopes Congress will take action.

Following the fatal 737 MAX crashes, the Federal Aviation Administration had to introduce a new deadline.

(Reporting from Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, David Shepardson and Will Dunham in Washington. Editing by Will Dunham