Rolls Royce is warning that its programme to realign capacity to demand could affect its supplier base in the UK, which includes Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast.
The British aircraft engine producer yesterday announced plans to shed 5,000 jobs, more than 10 per cent of its work at its plants in the UK.
Bombardier Aerospace has a substantial nacelles business in Northern Ireland that supplies to Rolls Royce in the UK.
The Canadian group's Belfast plant supplies nacelles components to Rolls Royce RB211 engines and for Airbus A330 engines.
Bombardier has warned that up to 2,000 jobs are under threat at its operations in Northern Ireland as a result of the worldwide downturn in the aviation sector following the terrorist attacks on the US last month.
A spokesman for Bombardier said it had taken account of a possible downturn in its nacelles business in the number of projected redundancies and these included any effect from the Rolls Royce restructuring programme.
Mr John Rose, chief executive of Rolls Royce, said yesterday the events of September 11th in the US had forced his company to assess the likely effect on its business.
Mr Rose said: "We expect difficult market conditions for civil aerospace in 2002 and 2003 and we are taking the necessary actions required to resize overheads and to align cost and capacity with demand. Regrettably this will have an effect on employment in the company and its supply base."
Civil aerospace accounts for more than 50 per cent of Rolls Royce business and the company has a long-standing relationship with Shorts in Belfast in this sector.
Trade union chiefs fear the Rolls Royce restructuring programme and the latest warnings from Boeing yesterday that it did not foresee an improvement in trading conditions, could seriously undermine its efforts to safeguard 2,000 workers on protective notice at Bombardier's Belfast plant.
Mr Kevin McAdam, regional officer with the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, said the lack of business confidence generally in the aviation sector was a worrying trend.
Bombardier employs more than 7,300 people at Shorts in Northern Ireland.
The group has said that 480 permanent jobs will go before Christmas and a further 400 temporary workers will be laid off in the North by January.
Mr McAdam said: "The Rolls Royce situation is an indication of how serious the threat is to all companies in the aerospace sector and we are certainly not encouraged by this latest development."
