Senior Editor

Jerry Siebenmark

Airbus and Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems will hire an additional 1,400 mainly production workers at its Wichita plant to support higher rates on Boeing Commercial Airplane programs as well as defense work, the company announced today. Spirit president and CEO Tom Gentile delivered the announcement this morning at an event attended by local and state political leaders and several hundred Spirit employees.

 


“In many respects this is the golden age of aviation,” Gentile said, speaking from the facility where Spirit manufactures the composite inner wall of the 737 Max and Next Gen thrust reverser. “We’re growing in terms of air traffic, there’s an incredible demand for new aircraft, and we are building more aircraft than ever before.”

 


The new jobs come on top of 1,000 new hires and a $1 billion site expansion in Wichita that Spirit announced last December. Mayor Jeff Longwell said the new jobs account for $75 million in annual wages. Spirit currently employs 12,500 in Wichita.&nbsp;

 


In Wichita, Spirit manufactures the forward fuselages and other parts of the Boeing 747, 767, 777, 777X and 787. On the 737 program, it manufactures the entire fuselage and other parts of the Max and NG.

 


“In March we celebrated our 10,000th 737 fuselage, which we delivered to Boeing and then on to Southwest Airlines,” Gentile said. “It took us 52 years to build 10,000 [737] fuselages. At the current rates of production, it will take us only 15 years to build the next 10,000.”

 


Boeing is currently producing fifty-two 737s a month with a rate increase to 57 a month set for 2019. It also is raising 787 production from 12 a month to 14 in 2019.

 


“It’s not driven by one program; it’s not driven by one customer,” Gentile said. “It’s a combination of new commercial programs, it’s growth of our fabrication and defense businesses, and it’s new business pursuits.”

 


Spirit also announced later on Wednesday plans to add 250 employees and invest more than $80 million in capital projects for fuselage manufacturing and assembly work at its Tulsa, Oklahoma&nbsp;manufacturing site.

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