Spirit Aero just opened a huge logistics center — and it's not in Wichita

Spirit AeroSystems has opened a 50,000-square-foot logistics warehouse at its plant in Malaysia as it grows its business there and adds jobs.

The Wichita-based aircraft supplier marked the opening of the center at a ceremony Wednesday in the Malaysia International Aerospace Centre in Subang, near the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

It's not clear how the expansion in Malaysia affects Spirit's operations in Wichita, where it employs about 12,000 people and is in the midst of hiring hundreds more workers this year and next.

"We are constantly looking at our ability to meet our customers’ increasing rate requirements," Spirit said in an e-mail to The Eagle on Thursday. "At the same time, we want to ensure each of our sites around the globe are functioning at their highest level of productivity and that we are utilizing the full capabilities of each site. In this case, we are taking advantage of the Malaysia site’s capabilities."

Work at the Subang site includes composite and metallic sub-assemblies for Airbus and Boeing airplanes.

The expansion there is driven by additional and new work on the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 as well as from rate increases on those programs as well as on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350. In Wichita, Spirit builds about 70 percent of the 737, Boeing's highest-selling passenger jet, and manufactures the composite forward fuselage of the 787.

Spirit first announced the Malaysian plant expansion a year ago.

The company employs about 860 people there, and plans to add 250 more jobs over the next three years, Spirit said in the e-mail..

In a news release issued late Wednesday, the company said the new building's design and infrastructure can accommodate another 75,000 square feet of future warehouse space.

If a new logistics center for Spirit sounds familiar, it should. Spirit announced in May plans for a seven-story, $23 million Global Digital Logistics Center at its south Oliver site. The new building is part of the Wichita expansion the company announced last December.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 10:59 AM.