Hawker to eliminate 2,300 positions

Wichita Business Journal - by Josh Heck

Increased challenges and further erosion of the aviation industry have forced Hawker Beechcraft Corp. to eliminate an additional 2,300 positions, Chairman and CEO Jim Schuster announced Tuesday in a letter to employees.

The action comes fewer than three months after the company announced in November it would eliminate 500 positions.

The majority of the affected persons will be notified by Friday, Schuster said.

“We at HBC have conducted a sweeping evaluation of our business plans and implemented a wide range of measures to dramatically reduce our costs,” Schuster wrote. “As a consequence of these actions, we will be forced to reduce our work force by approximately 2,300 employees before the end of the year.”

Hawker officials have not announced how many jobs will be affected in Wichita. Company spokesperson Andrew Broom says additional details about the layoffs will not be available until at least Friday.

The announcement comes less than a week after Cessna Aircraft Co. announced it would be laying off 1,500 more workers locally in an effort to reduce its company wide work force by 4,600. The Boeing Co. last week announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs this year, about 800 of which will affect Boeing IDS Wichita.

In his letter, Schuster also cited problems with the government’s stimulus package, which he said fails to loosen credit markets, and a slowing of orders from previously high-volume business segments.

Schuster also blamed the media and some politicians who have cast general aviation as “a wasteful extravagance instead of a critical business tool and the source of millions of American jobs.”

He said business aviation contributes $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy.

“The increased challenges that lay before us demand an extraordinary response from our company and the U.S. aviation industry to ensure our short-term stability and long-term success,” Schuster said. “This is an extremely painful step for the HBC family and community, but one that is absolutely necessary.”

It’s unclear whether Hawker will impose additional layoffs. Schuster said he couldn’t promise Tuesday’s layoffs would be the last at Hawker.

“While I wish I could commit to you that this will be our final action, I cannot do so at this time given the extreme volatility in the marketplace,” he said. “The bottom line is that we must be prepared to do whatever is required to make certain that we successfully emerge from the downturn.”

Hawker is Wichita’s third largest employer with 7,500 employees, according to a list that published last month in the Wichita Business Journal.