Spirit AeroSystems Inc., the world’s largest supplier and manufacturer of commercial airplane assemblies and parts, announced a plan to hire over 200 new employees to be designated in various headquarters of the company. The hiring is slated for the first quarter of this year. The new jobs are generally factory positions and will be based at Spirit’s Wichita and Tulsa, Oklahoma plants. Hires are also being planned at the Kinston, North Carolina manufacturing plant, where Spirit builds the center fuselage and wing spar for the Airbus A350. The Kansas-based company currently employs more than 10,000 in its main headquarters at Wichita, a total 14,000 staff worldwide. Spirit conducted two job fairs recently in order to fill the new slots. Another job fair is slated for Jan 21.

Ken Evans, company spokesman, said that the present job hiring is based on the company’s need for the moment. However, Evans did not provide additional details as to an exact number of employees to be hired for the entire 2011 and when. “The hiring that’s going on is measured hiring. It’s not throw the doors open and we have to ramp up thousands of new positions tomorrow.”

The company explained that the hiring is attributed to the increase in demand of 737 and 777 commercial airliners. Spirit is the maker of 737 fuselage and parts of the 777. Despite the demand increase, Spirit can’t hire in full-blast due to other business constraints. “What we’re dealing with are rate increases across different programs where job numbers are not the only issue. There are also issues with expanded space, the right tooling (and) if you change processes in a particular way or not.” Evans added: “Hiring also depends on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner schedule. With delays on the program, Spirit has moved workers to other areas.”