WICHITA — Boeing announced today that the company will move all work from Wichita and the giant airplane-manufacturing plant will be closed. The move, which goes into effect at the end of next year, will affect 2,200 workers. Modification and maintenance work will go to San Antonio, Texas; engineering work to Oklahoma City, and work on a new-generation air-refueling tanker will go to Seattle. The company said the 24 Kansas suppliers on the tanker program will continue to provide parts as originally planned. Wichita State University said that the closure will directly cost $1.5 billion in wages over 10 years, and would create economic shock waves across the state. Boeing has been at Wichita more than 80 years. Boeing had promised that if it won an Air Force contract to build a new-generation of air-refueling tankers, they would be built at Wichita. In part because of a strong lobbying campaign by Kansas politicians, Boeing won the contract over the European airplane builder Airbus. As expected, those politicians called the decision “disappointing,” although a few including U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, and State Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, used the word “outrage.” “It is hard to believe that conditions would have changed so rapidly over the past few months to bring about the decision to not only move the tanker finishing work elsewhere, but to also close down the entire facility,” Moran said. “The fact that Boeing is now refusing to honor its commitment to the people of Kansas is greatly troubling to me and to thousands of Kansans who trusted that Boeing’s promise would be kept.” “Boeing is the poster child for corporate tax incentives,” Ward said. “This company has benefited from property tax incentives, sales tax exemptions, infrastructure investments and other tax breaks at every level of government. These incentives were provided in an effort to retain and create thousands of Kansas jobs.” It was the second time the company has stiffed the state. The company wrangled a large tax break from the state for its commercial aircraft division in 2004. A year later, Boeing sold it to a company now called Spirit Aerosystems, resulting in a sharp decrease in aviation related jobs.
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 8 a.m.
