Very Sad News: Bombardier Shorts reduces workforce

Shorts is shedding 240 workers, taking the total number of redundancies in the pipeline at Northern Ireland’s biggest employer to 700.

The job cuts at Shorts are in addition to the 460 jobs which the east Belfast firm said earlier this month would be axed before the end of the year.
Falling sales

Those cuts resulted from the downturn in the aerospace industry following the 11 September attacks last year, the company said.

At that time, the firm warned of 2,000 job losses by next January.

The fall-off in work has also resulted in a slowing in demand for its small business aircraft.

In a statement on Friday, vice-president and general manager, Bombardier Aerospace Northern Ireland, Michael Ryan, said the job losses were regretted.

“Due to the continuing challenges in the aviation market, particularly the business aircraft market, the cuts are necessary in order to protect the remaining jobs and maintain our competitiveness,” he said.

“Belfast is a core part of Bombardier’s aerospace business.

“We are ensuring that a strong integrated design and manufacturing capability is retained here in order to maintain our competitiveness and to be ready for the upturn in the market when it comes.”

Figures released last month showed profits and sales at Shorts fell last year. While its profits dipped only slightly at £55m in the year to January, sales were down by 10% at £450m.

During the last year, Shorts – which had a workforce of 6,500 at its height – has cut its workforce by about 1,000.

However, its Canadian parent company Bombardier has relatively healthy order books.

In July, Bombardier announced it was building part of its new corporate jet at Shorts