- KUAR
- CLOSING: Hawker’s Little Rock plant.
Troubled Hawker Beechcraft plans to close its Little Rock private jet facility as well as plants in Arizona and Texas and lay off employees in Wichita. The closure in Little Rock will idle more than 100 workers here.
KSN TV in Wichita published a letter to employees:
Fellow Hawker Beechcraft Employees,
Following our recent announcement that we intend to emerge from Chapter 11 protection as a standalone company, we have begun assessing what our workforce and operational footprint will be for a sustainable and competitive future as Beechcraft Corporation.
More background from Arkansas Business.
With that in mind, we will begin the process of closing the Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas. Approximately 240 employees will be affected in these locations.
In addition, we will be implementing a reduction in force that will affect approximately 170 employees at Hawker Beechcraft Corporation in Wichita, Kan., and Little Rock. More than half of those affected are employees at our Little Rock Completions Center, where the company is finishing its remaining Hawker aircraft for customer delivery. The company already has taken a series of steps during 2012 to match its hourly employee levels to adjusted production rates. Therefore, we expect this reduction will impact 15 or fewer bargaining unit employees.
Impacted employees at the three HBS locations will be notified the week of Nov. 12. Employees in Wichita will be notified on Friday, Nov. 9 and those at the Little Rock Completions Center on Monday, Nov. 12. Each employee will be notified of whether he/she will be required to work during all or some of the 60-day Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) period based on business needs. Human Resources leaders will be working with managers, who will inform the impacted employees.
While extremely difficult decisions, these closures and reductions in force will get the company closer to what we envision for our go-forward plan that focuses on turboprop, piston, special mission and trainer/attack aircraft, as well as our parts, maintenance, repairs and refurbishment businesses.
Your continued focus on designing, manufacturing and servicing the best airplanes in the world is critical to our success, and we appreciate your continued hard work and dedication. We will continue to provide updates as we move forward.
