Boeing said on Friday it is addressing yet another software issue discovered in Iowa last weekend during a technical review of the proposed update to the grounded Boeing 737 MAX, a development that will even further delay the plane's return to service.
Wichita's largest employer, Spirit AeroSystems, a significant supplier to Boeing, which builds the entire fuselage, engine pylons, thrust reversers, and wing components for the MAX program, announced last Friday that it will lay off 2,800 workers due to production shutdown of the Boeing 737 Max. All 2,800 employees work in Wichita. The layoffs will be followed by further cuts later this month at the company's Tulsa and McAlester, Oklahoma, locations, according to a news release sent out by the company.
Even prior to this newest additional delay, a number of aviation experts had speculated that it would be extremely difficult to resurrect some of the smaller specialized sub-suppliers that have shut-down operations, and that Boeing may well ship the entire 737 MAX assembly over to China, let them fix the software issues, set-up the assembly line and suppliers, and build the plane there, while giving it a brand new name.
This would result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, with reverberations of additional job losses, and a major impact on the U.S. economy.