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MONTREAL-based aircraft maker Bombardier announced on Thursday that it would “pause” its Learjet 85 business jet programme, shedding 1,000 jobs at factories in Kansas and Mexico in the process.
Wichita, where the plane is built, is taking the brunt of the cutbacks with 620 jobs affected. The remaining job losses are in Queretaro, Mexico.
The company claimed that the suspension of the programme was due to weak demand for the plane.
“Given the weakness of the market, we made the difficult decision to pause the Learjet 85 programme,” said Bombardier boss Pierre Beaudoin.
The company contended that the two plants remained “critical facilities.”
Bombardier employed around 2,500 workers at its Wichita facility as of December 31, spokeswoman Isabelle Rondeau said.
The company said it had no timeline as to when it would resume production of the aircraft.
But Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group, called Bombardier’s contention that it was suspending the plane because of market conditions “utter nonsense,” noting that other business jet manufacturers were doing well.
Bombardier was simply taking a risk to enter a new market with its new C-Series jetliner, he noted.
“Everything else gets sacrificed,” Mr Aboulafia said.
The layoffs follow a string of workforce reductions across the company in the past year.
In July, Bombardier announced it was cutting 1,800 jobs worldwide.
And in January 2014, Bombardier announced a cut of about 1,700 employees and contractors at facilities in the US and Canada, including 550 in Wichita.
