Key Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems is laying off 450 after production of troubled 737s slows

By JOSH FUNK
AP Business Writer

A key Boeing supplier that makes the fuselages for its popular 737 Max airplanes is laying off about 450 workers. That’s because production has slowed down ever since a panel flew off one of those airplanes operated by Alaska Airlines in midair in January. A spokesman for Spirit AeroSystems confirmed the layoffs at its Wichita, Kansas, plant on Thursday that would trim its workforce of just over 13,000 people. Spirit is Boeing’s most important supplier on the 737s because it makes fuselages and installs door plugs like the one that flew off the plane. But it’s not clear whether Spirit or Boeing employees were the last ones to touch that panel.