Bombardier Aerospace said Tuesday it will be scaling back production of its regional jets, cutting approximately 1,300 jobs while starting up production of its Q400 turboprop plant.
The planned job cuts will be partially offset by an increase of 800 jobs at the company’s Toronto manufacturing plant. The cuts will take place over a nine-month period starting this month. Severance costs associated with the layoffs will total approximately $31 million.
In a statement, Bombardier said starting in November it will reduce production of its 70-seat CRJ700 and 90-seat CRJ900 regional jets to a rate of one plane every five days, from one every three days currently. The company expects to deliver about 65 of the planes in fiscal 2007 and about 50 planes in fiscal 2008, down from 77 last year. Total Bombardier employment as of July 2006 was approximately 26,900. The overall workforce level has remained at a similar level since January 2004.