MORE aviation industry gloom descended on Bournemouth International Airport yesterday as its biggest employer revealed it will be forced to lay off around a tenth of its workforce next month.
Staff at FR Aviation have received provisional notification of redundancy, as the company bears the brunt of a downturn in the air travel business, still feeling the impact of the September 11 terrorist atrocities.
Exact numbers will not be known for another three weeks or so, but it is estimated that 65 of the 550-strong workforce will go, all in engineering and maintenance.
Administration director and company secretary Blair Wallis said the move was "absolutely necessary" as a short-term measure.
"We are currently in the consultation phase and are doing everything we can to handle the situation as sensitively as possible," he explained.
"There has been a serious fall in orders for the modification and maintenance of civil and military aircraft, and we were left with no choice but to make cuts."
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