Spirit AeroSystems tells workers it’s closing McAlester, Oklahoma, facility
Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems will close its facility in McAlester, Oklahoma, the company told employees Thursday.
The closure is due to the continued downturn in commercial aviation during the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing impacts from the grounding of the 737 Max. Spirit president Tom Gentile informed all global Spirit employees of the closure in a message Thursday, obtained by The Eagle.
The effects of both the pandemic and the 737 Max grounding have left Spirit with more production capacity than it needs, the message reads, because of reduced demand for new airplanes from customers such as Boeing and Airbus.
About 175 employees in McAlester will be impacted by the closure, a Spirit spokesperson said. The company plans to close the facility in the second quarter of 2021. Spirit’s employment in McAlester has already been reduced by more than 50% this year, according to the message.
“In a matter of months, the production rates across all our Boeing and Airbus work packages were reduced as air travel dramatically fell,” Gentile wrote in his message. “Unfortunately, we now see a protracted downturn in the commercial aviation market that requires actions to prepare Spirit to navigate the new business realities.”
The 737 Max plane was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in March 2019 following two deadly crashes. Spirit AeroSystems manufactures much of the structure on the 737 Max for its customer Boeing, which instructed Spirit to halt production on the 737 Max in January, leading to 2,800 layoffs in Wichita.
The Wichita layoffs were then followed by further cuts at Spirit’s Tulsa and McAlester locations.
Spirit’s closure of the McAlester facility follows recent hope that the 737 Max will soon return to the air as the FAA began test flights. The head of the FAA Wednesday piloted the plane himself and said he liked what he saw.
Slowed production rates significantly impacted the work done in McAlester, where employees do assembly, legacy machining and fabrication work. Spirit will consolidate the work done in McAlester at its facilities in Wichita and Tulsa. Some residual work will move to Spirit’s regional supply chain over the next several months.
Spirit’s McAlester location opened in 1964 under what was then North American Aviation. When Boeing acquired Rockwell International’s aerospace and defense business in 1996, it included the McAlester site. Spirit AeroSystems was spun off from Boeing in 2005, and McAlester was one of the three original sites to form the Spirit business.
Over the years, employees in McAlester supported the Apollo space program, military programs like the B-1B Bomber and numerous commercial airplane initiatives, Gentile said.
“This decision is not a reflection on the work of the team in McAlester,” Gentile wrote.
Separately, the airline industry Thursday expected to furlough or lay off thousands of workers after Congress failed to reach a deal on a new pandemic relief package. American Airlines and United Airlines will begin to furlough 32,000 employees, the Associated Press reported.
“This situation is one that is very dynamic and difficult, and I recognize the challenge it presents to all of us,” Gentile wrote to employees. “We also know this may create a hardship for our employees and the community, and we are committed to working through this transition with the employees at our McAlester site as well as our suppliers and our customers.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 12:20 PM.
