The Boeing Co. is considering the fate of its Wichita, Kan., site in the face of cuts to the country’s defense budget.
“The Wichita facility faces pressures because of product and services contracts that have matured and expired, and limited prospects for future work,” the company said in a statement released Monday.
Closing its Wichita facility is among the options Boeing is reviewing. Boeing’s 2,100 employees in Wichita mostly perform defense work, not work for the company’s commercial airplanes division, which has hired roughly 8,000 people in Washington this year.
“Because of defense budget pressures, we are conducting a number of market studies to determine how to best preserve and grow our business, and continue to provide quality and cost-efficient services for our customers,” Boeing said.
The company expects to wrap up its review of the Wichita location by the end of the year or in early 2012.
Boeing’s statement was released the same day that Congress’ super committee admitted it had failed to devise a plan to reduce the nation’s debt. Under the law that established the committee last summer, failure by the six Republicans and six Democrats to reach a compromise would trigger about $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts in military and domestic government programs beginning in 2013.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and members of the Kansas Congressional delegation called on Boeing to honor its promises to the state in terms of the U.S. Air Force tanker contract. Earlier this year, Boeing won the contest to build 179 Air Force tankers, using a tanker based on its Everett-built 767 commercial jet. The company had talked about installing military applications on the tankers in Wichita.
“Boeing has promised publicly and repeatedly in writing that the success in winning the tanker contract would mean ‘7,500 jobs’ in Kansas, including several hundred jobs at Boeing-Wichita for the tanker finishing center,” the Kansas politicians said in a statement. “We expect the company to honor that commitment.”
Boeing’s shares declined $1.90 to close at $65.56 on Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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