SAN ANTONIO - When Boeing announced on Wednesday that they were moving at least 300 jobs to San Antonio there were a lot of unanswered questions, but they promised to answer them on Thursday.
The world's largest aviation company made the recent announcement to boost San Antonio’s economy and employment rate by committing to more jobs.
Kevin Devine, the Boeing site leader said, “Obviously an additional 400 jobs on top of the 1100 that we added last year with the commercial business here is a large impact.”
The job opportunities came about because Boeing decided to close its Wichita Kansas plant due to labor and infrastructure cost. This means the company is moving its executive fleet to San Antonio, including work on Air Force One.
The new positions that need to be filled are in the area of aviation mechanics.
“So it's mainly mechanics, A and P type mechanics, avionics, electricians, structural mechanics, similar to the work that we do here now,” said Devine.
According to Boeing leaders, the jobs will be available for current employees to fill as well as new applicants.
Joe fisher, who serves as the president of Hallmark College in San Antonio is hopeful many of those jobs will be filled by his former students and upcoming May 2012 graduates.
“We've provided aviation maintenance technicians for the last 40 years to the San Antonio community and really to the international community,” said Fisher. “And Boeing of course has many of our students already working in their facility out there.”
While it has not yet been determined when the hiring process will start, the entire transition is expected to be complete by the third quarter of 2013.
