Pratt & Whitney Canada cuts 410 Quebec jobs in response to business jet market decline

Pratt & Whitney Canada axes 410 jobs

HARTFORD, Conn. — Jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Canada said Wednesday it will lay off more than 400 workers by next year in response to the steep decline in corporate jet purchases.

The subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. said it will lay off 250 workers by the end of the year. It also will shut a plant in Longueuil, Quebec, where Pratt & Whitney Canada is based, by the end of 2010, leaving 160 workers jobless.

The company said it will consolidate its work into three manufacturing and aftermarket facilities in Quebec. The company employs more than 9,000 workers.

“We need to make strategic decisions and structural changes to remain competitive and preserve our future in the face of continuing economic headwinds,” said John Saabas, president of Pratt & Whitney Canada.

Nancy German, a spokesman for the company, said Wednesday that other business segments such as regional aircraft and helicopters are not affected as significantly as is the business jet market.

Even as the global recession shows signs of easing, Pratt & Whitney Canada does not expect a quick improvement in its businesses. The layoffs are needed to “align with a projected decline in customer demand and weakness in the global aerospace market with no signs of a recovery in 2010,” the company said.

Business jets have been targeted for cost-cutting as a symbol of corporate excess, hurting manufacturers of jets, engines and other components. German said Pratt & Whitney Canada does not expect businesses to resume jet purchases until long after the recession ends.

United Technologies has said it will slash 11,600 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force. The announcement by Pratt & Whitney that it will cut jobs was the third in eight months and is a part of that reduction.

In February, Pratt & Whitney Canada announced layoffs of up to 1,000 workers. Earlier this month, Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, Conn., said it will eliminate 1,000 jobs in Connecticut by 2011, transferring engine repair work to Columbus, Ga., Singapore and Japan in a drive to cut costs, primarily labor expenses.

For the first six months of the year, Pratt & Whitney posted operating profit of $903 million, down nearly 16 percent from the same period in 2008.

Shares fell 49 cents, to $60.82 in morning trading.