Bombardier is cutting 220 jobs in Northern Ireland

Bombardier is one of Northern Ireland's biggest employers

The aerospace firm Bombardier is to cut at least 220 jobs from its Northern Ireland operation due to a fall in demand for its business jets.

There will be around 1,500 job cuts at the company's operations in Canada.

The firm said 280 workers in Belfast will be affected but that it hopes to save 60 of those jobs by moving people to other programmes and projects.

It added that the majority of those affected will be temporary or contract workers.

The firm said it hopes to avoid compulsory redundancies within its permanent workforce.

The job cuts relate to the Global 5000 and 6000 business jets.

Demand for the jets has fallen in markets like Russia and China.

Difficult

Eric Martel, president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, said: "We have seen an industry-wide softness in demand recently in certain international markets and are taking steps to adjust our production accordingly.

"We fully understand the impact this will have on our affected employees and their families and we will do everything possible to support them."

This is the latest in series of job cuts at Bombardier's Belfast operations - 130 job losses were announced in February on top of almost 400 in 2014.

Bombardier has had a difficult few years with the development of its C Series plane badly delayed and a business jet project suspended.

The Canadian firm recently appointed a new chief executive in an attempt to find a way out of the current problems.

The aerospace company is one of Northern Ireland's biggest employers.

About 5,000 permanent employees and about 1,000 temporary and contract staff work at its Belfast base.