Bombardier said Tuesday it is cutting 1,330 jobs, including at least 485 jobs in Montreal, as it scales back production of its regional jets.

The company said 645 jobs will be cut in Belfast, Northern Ireland, beginning in January 2007.

The Montreal plant, shown during the 1999 rollout of the CRJ700, will lose 485 jobs starting in late November.
(Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Montreal will lose 485 jobs starting in late November, while another 200 management and salaried jobs in Canada will be eliminated this month.

The company said it will reduce the production rate for its 70-seat CRJ700 and its 90-seat CRJ900 regional jets beginning next month to one aircraft every five days from the current rate of one jet every three days.

Some of those job cuts will be offset as Bombardier said it will also increase production of its Q-Series turboprop aircraft this month. The company said employment at its Toronto plant, where the Q-Series and Global aircraft are built, will have grown by 800 people by the end of the firm's fiscal year.

"The restructuring of the airline industry continues, with relatively few orders for regional jets in the 70- to 90-seat jet category being awarded in recent years," said Pierre Beaudoin, the president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, in a release.

"This situation should improve as attested by the numerous sales campaigns we are actively pursuing. However, we must be prudent and manage proactively our CRJ700/900 jet production schedule in the short term to ensure we achieve our goal of increased profitability and our success in the long term," he said.

A key Bombardier competitor — the Brazilian airplane maker, Embraer — has been getting many of the aviation world's recent regional jet orders, as it has bigger planes. 

Bombardier's aerospace division employed roughly 26,900 people as of July 2006.

The president of the machinists union, which represents about 5,000 workers at Bombardier, expressed his disappointment at the cuts.

"We were expecting something to happen for the last few months, but with the latest two orders that we've had, we were hoping things would turn around, and we'd be able to keep jobs inside, you know? But this morning we learned otherwise," said David Chartrand.

Bombardier shares rose 27 cents, or seven per cent, to close at $4.12 on the TSX.