THE threatened collapse of Dutch aircraft company Fokker has placed 1,500 jobs at risk at the Belfast aerospace concern, Short Brothers.

Short is a major supplier to Fokker which is threatened with closure after sustaining huge financial losses. Daimler Benz, the chief shareholder in Fokker, yesterday decided it could no longer support the debt ridden company.

If the Dutch government refuses to bail out Fokker, up to 1,500 jobs may be lost at Short. The Belfast aerospace company has a special division manufacturing wings for Fokker employing about 700 people, with a further 800 Short employees supporting this division.

The loss of the Fokker contract would also have serious implications for outside suppliers to Short, who rely on Fokker indirectly. One estimate said a total of 2,000 direct and indirect jobs could be in jeopardy.

Short said it would continue to monitor the situation at Fokker and would keep its workforce informed of developments.

Short has had a longstanding link to Fokker going back to the mid 1960s. In recent years it has been manufacturing wings for the Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 aircraft, known as the Jetline programme.

Short is a partner with Fokker in this programme. Late last year the Dutch company requested all its suppliers to make significant price reductions, as high as 40 per cent, to help it overcome its grave financial difficulties.

Short subsequently set in train a number of cost reducing measures but said that the 40 per cent price reduction demand was unrealistic as it would lead to losses at its wing manufacturing division.

The Fokker contract accounts for about 30 per cent of Short's aerospace work. Short employs 9,500 people world wide, about 7,000 of them working in Northern Ireland in the company's aerospace, missiles and maintenance and training divisions.

Mr Joe Bowers, a spokesman for the MSF union, said workers at Short were very concerned about the problems at Fokker and about the dangers that its collapse would not only cost jobs at Short but could generally destabilise the company.