American Airlines is expected to announce the closure of its overhaul base in Kansas City sometime on Wednesday morning. The facility employs 500 people, 450 of whom are unionized. No official announcement has been made yet by either the company or the union, because the company wants to address the work force first. We will update this post with further details once the announcement has been made.

Update:

The facility in Kansas City along with a few smaller facilities around the country are being shut down over the next year. In total, over 700 jobs will be lost, including management and union jobs. American Airlines is one of the last airlines doing its own maintenance domestically. The trend in recent years has been to outsource the work to countries like El Salvador where labor costs are cheaper, but where the FAA isn’t able to monitor the facilities to the same degree.