Cessna has announced plans to close its three plants in Columbus, Ga., including the $25 million 100,000-square-foot facility that it opened there in August 2008 and its McCauley Propeller facility. It will also move 175 subassembly jobs from Wichita. The timeframe for all the action is anywhere from six to 24 months. In Georgia, the closures will claim the remaining 315 workers of what was once a 600-person-strong workforce. Some of the work will move to Independence, Kan., and Mexico. Meanwhile, back in Wichita, and over the same time period, the company “will move some subassembly work,” affecting, but perhaps not terminating, the jobs of 175 Wichita workers, spokesman Doug Oliver told The Wichita Eagle. “We need to continually attack costs and structure the business for predicted demand” of the company’s aircraft, Oliver said.
Cessna’s Columbus facilities have been a part of the company since 1996 and in 2008 Cessna had planned to add up to 150 jobs over five years. But by January 2009 Cessna had announced plans to cut 100 jobs, followed in April and August by 89 and 50 jobs, respectively.
