Wichita ? Boeing Co. issued 8,100 layoff notices Friday as part of its sale of commercial aircraft operations in Wichita to Onex Corp., with those workers now having to apply for their old jobs with the new buyer.

An additional 1,200 workers also received layoff notices at Boeing’s commercial aircraft plants in Tulsa, Okla., and McAlester, Okla.

The 60-day notices went to 5,200 hourly and 2,900 salaried production and service workers in Wichita, said Boeing spokesman Dick Ziegler. No layoff notices have gone out yet to engineers.

“Reaction has been mixed, as you might expect,” Ziegler said. “It is part of the human condition that you want to be in control of our own destiny and own environment.”

The layoff notices are part of the separation and re-employment process required as the Chicago-based aerospace leader transfers assets to Toronto-based Onex. Workers were asked to sign waivers allowing release of their personnel information to be considered for new employment with Onex.

Onex is forming a separate aircraft company in Wichita, which it temporarily has named Midwestern Aircraft Systems until a more permanent name is determined, Ziegler said.

Ziegler, who got one of the layoff notices himself, said he had already signed his waiver to be considered for a new job with Onex.

“It is kind of an exciting prospect,” he said. “A little scary, but I am in a fairly enviable position: I’m old enough to retire if I don’t get a job.”

Onex agreed last month to buy Boeing’s massive commercial aircraft plant in Wichita, plus other work sites in Tulsa, Okla., and McAlester, Okla., for $900 million cash and the assumption of $300 million debt. The sale is part of Boeing’s strategy to focus its commercial aircraft business on design and final assembly.