Print edition: 
Spirit AeroSystems on Thursday announced a voluntary retirement program for Wichita employees age 55 or older.
To be eligible, employees must be managers, salaried or represented by the company's professional and technical union.
The offer is limited to the first 300 who apply, the company said.
Volunteers will receive a $30,000 incentive to be paid out over six months.
"At Spirit, we continually evaluate our work force to ensure alignment with our current and anticipated business environment," Gloria Farha Flentje, Spirit senior vice president for administration and human resources, said in a memo to employees.
There are too many employees in certain jobs and with certain skill sets and not enough in other jobs or skill sets, she wrote.
"We're trying to do innovative things to avoid layoffs and keep our team intact for the future," Spirit spokeswoman Debbie Gann said.
Part of the voluntary retirement program is a "knowledge transfer process," Gann said.
The process aims to transfer the knowledge and skills possessed by employees who leave to other employees in the company, she said.
