Washington State is known for its airplane industry. Boeing has announced that it will close its Wichita location and move to the Puget Sound area.
Boeing has a historic facility in Wichita, but it is changing up many of its locations. To be specific, Boeing will expand the new six-story office complex in Oklahoma City to include a second building. This office move is just one of the things Boeing is doing. It will be making room in the business relocation for Long Beach, California facilities to be placed in Oklahoma. The military maintenance work in Wichita will be placed in San Antonio during the office move. The Air Force tanker program that was supposed to be for Wichita is the portion moving to Puget Sound in Washington. Boeing stated the move would be completed by 2013. The facility is supposedly too high in cost to continue, with work waning and defense budget cuts on the horizon. Boeing stated it was not labor costs that have driven the move.
In fact, the move will bring about 800 to 900 jobs to Oklahoma. Transfers are beginning in the fall of 2012, with about 2,160 people being given the option of relocation to other facilities so that the site in Wichita can be closed completely. Boeing conducted several studies before deciding to close the facility and spread its work throughout the US. Oklahoma and Washington will help provide lower costs to the company, especially in Oklahoma.
Lance Grooms
