Boeing CEO Jim McNerney credits South Carolina's elected officials and education system for his "ahead of schedule" local Dreamliner complex and called hiccups at that plant "growing pains" typical of a new airplane with a new engine.

Speaking at a business forum Monday in Charleston, McNerney hinted that further expansion of Boeing's North Charleston operations is likely as long as that government support and the maturation of the 6,000-member workforce here continue.

"And so I think growth will come here as Boeing grows, because this is the growth engine of the Boeing Co. This is the flagship of our wide-body airplane business," McNerney told The (Charleston) Post and Courier.

As for the first S.C.-built 787 whose delivery to Air India has been serially postponed, most recently last week, McNerney said "all the folks in Charleston have done their job," and now it's "just a matter of India getting some regulatory and financing things straightened out."