Spirit AeroSystems Reports Q2 Losses, Hopes Wichita Mass Hiring Will Help With Production

Aug. 3—Officials at Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems hope that hundreds of new hires can help address a staffing shortage that was partly blamed for second quarter losses of $122.2 million.

During an earnings call Wednesday morning with investors and media, Spirit CEO Tom Gentile blamed staffing, rising costs from inflation and supply chain issues for the loss. Wichita was the only location singled out among the company's worldwide facilities for staffing problems.

But there is good news on Wichita's staffing shortage.

The company made nearly 700 offers for manufacturing jobs to people out of the 1,200 that attended a job fair in July. Gentile said it takes about 90 days to train an employee.

Gentile said Spirit still needs to hire more people in Wichita, but he touted the job fair as a major success. He said they had exhausted the recall list of the 5,000 people who were laid off in 2020 during the pandemic and after the Boeing 737 Max was grounded following two deadly crashes.

Spirit, Wichita's largest employer, makes 737 fuselages.

A spokesperson for Spirit said they now have 10,000 employees in Wichita. A Spirit official previously reported 13,200 employees in Wichita at the end of 2019, before the mass layoffs from the 737 grounding and COVID. There were about 8,000 workers by the end of 2020, the official said.

The 737, a popular commercial plane, was cleared to fly again in late 2020. Spirit's production of the 737 fuselage has been increasing since. Spirit delivered 35 fuselages during the second quarter of last year, compared to 71 this year. They also delivered 64 for the first half of 2021 compared with 131 during the first six months of this year. Gentile said they plan to deliver 300 by the end of the year.

Gentile was hopeful for better reports in the future. He said domestic air travel has rebounded close to 2019 levels. July 1, just ahead of the holiday weekend, had higher screenings than on the same day in 2019 before the pandemic, accordion to Transportation Security Administration data.

Spirit's revenue for the first half of the year was $2.43 billion compared with $1.90 billion during the same time last year. The entire report second-quarter report can be viewed at tinyurl.com/yc37m8bt.

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