The union representing more than 700 Spirit AeroSystems engineers presented the company with a counterproposal on wage and benefit issues today.
The engineers are represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. The current contract expires July 11.
Significant differences still exist between the parties, the union told workers in a memo.
But “SPEEA is working diligently to arrive at an agreement that is of mutual benefit and our team is able to recommend to members,” it said.
Talks on Wednesday will focus around the final major issues.
Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines formed a ticketing agreement that will allow Frontier to travel to destinations currently served by Midwest, the airline said this week.
But whether the marketing alliance will help Wichita fliers is too soon to say.
“It’s too early to know what’s going to happen,” Valerie Wise with the Wichita Airport Authority said. Frontier already serves Milwaukee, which is Midwest’s hub.
Both airlines were acquired by Republic Airways Holdings of Indianapolis last week. Frontier was bought out of bankruptcy. Republic, through its subsidiaries Chautauqua, Shuttle America and Republic, operate flights for other mainline airlines. Therefore, Republic does not have a hub or network of its own.
The marketing agreement between Frontier and Midwest will begin late this summer.
Frontier operates two daily flights from Wichita to its hub in Denver.
