Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Overdrawn

Boeing announced today that it is leaving Wichita, where it's presence for over eighty years gave Wichita the moniker of "Air Capital."

This, after having their nads saved after some heavy political wrangling.

Let's go back to when Airbus was awarded the contract for the new KC-X Air Force tanker aircraft to replace the aging KC-135 fleet. Boeing protested the contract, and with a ton of political maneuvering, was finally awarded the contract. It didn't hurt that Kansas Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts (who was on the Senate Committee on Armed Services at the time) put their political muscle on the line. Wichita and Sedgwick County have certainly worked with Boeing as far as tax incentives go, too.

There was a lot of political capital spent to get Boeing the contract, with stipulations that they would keep the jobs local. Clearly, the local officials feel screwed over.

Boeing probably best not appear hat in hand begging to be saved from the evils of the world any time real soon with any of the political principals involved. Just sayin.'
Posted by Jeffro at 10:23 PM
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3 comments:

jed said...

I'm sure you know better than I, but I thought it was the presence of a heaping lot of general aviation companies that were the reason for that Moniker. Of course, maybe the same thing that drew Boeing there is what attracted the others as well. Something like ... no big mountains to fly into?

Of course, the FAA, etc., seem to have pulled the rug out from under a lot of general aviation (IIRC), though the sport-pilot rating, ultralights, and such have helped a lot.

6:15 PM
Jeffro said...

Boeing was the biggest, but yeah, there used to be a hell of a lot more companies there twenty or so years ago.

11:10 PM
drjim said...

I know it sucks for Kansas, but having worked for Boeing in the past, they really will try and find the employees other jobs at other Boeing facilities.
I was offered no less than 3 different jobs, with no cut in pay, and a generous relocation package. Since I had just moved in with my girlfriend, I wasn't really in a position to take them up on any of them.
Two of the jobs would have involved extensive travel, and would have been a real money-maker for me (about a 50% increase), and the third would have meant moving to Seattle. Since my gf (now my wife) has 20+ years with the Long Beach Unified School District, we couldn't just pack up and move, so I let them lay me off.
I worked out OK, as the location I was assigned to came out of Chapter 7, and called me back.

10:36 PM

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