MONTREAL: Canadian aircraft and transport company Bombardier will cut 5,000 jobs globally and sell off its ageing turboprop line in a bid to “streamline” operations, the struggling firm announced on Thursday.

The reduction of seven percent of its workforce across the organisation will occur over the next 12 to 18 months, while key aerospace engineering team members will be redeployed to its business segments.

The cuts will be concentrated in the aerospace business and will affect 3,000 workers in Canada, company spokesman Simon Letendre told AFP. Bombardier has had to slash more than 15,000 jobs in its aerospace and rail divisions around the world since 2015.

The Montreal-based group also announced the sale of “non-core assets” totalling around $900 million, including the Q Series turboprop aircraft programme and the de Havilland trademark, which was sold for some $300m to a Canadian investment fund.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2018