Bombardier job cuts
Canadian plane maker Bombardier said it would cut 7,500 additional jobs this year on top of the 7,000 it announced in February as it tries to turn around its business. The latest cuts amount to just over 10 percent of the company’s global workforce and would affect mainly administrative and nonproduction positions. The cuts are expected to help the company save upwards of US$300 million by the end of 2018.
The company said the layoffs will result in a charge of up to US$275 million and added that some job losses will be offset by hiring in other segments like its CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft products. Bombardier had nearly 71,000 employees at the end of 2015.
“The actions announced today will ensure we have the right cost structure, workforce and organization to compete and win in the future,” chief executive Alain Bellemare said in a release.
To help shore up its balance sheet, Bombardier has been in discussions with the Canadian government over possible funding. Those talks continue, both the company and the government said.
The company is focusing its efforts going forward on its CSeries single-aisle aircraft line that it hopes to use to compete against Airbus and Boeing. The CSeries flew its first revenue flights in July for Swiss International Air Lines and has orders from Air Canada and Delta closer to home. Bombardier agreed a year ago to sell a stake in its CSeries programme to the Quebec government in exchange for a US$1 billion investment.
