Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita is planning to lay off hundreds of workers in the next few weeks.
Employees received an email Thursday from Terry George, Spirit’s Senior Vice President in Wichita and Tulsa of Operations, Fabrication, Operations Engineering, Tooling and Facilities. The email said because of high inventory levels, Spirit will have to “slow down our operations to align our workforce with the needs of our customers.” The company is planning to reduce its hourly workforce by 400 to 450 employees.
Managers will be contacting employees over the next few weeks on instructions for the exit process.
Boeing has been in talks to buy Spirit Aerosystems. Both companies have been under scrutiny in recent months because of incidents with the Boeing 737 MAX jetliner.
