More than a third of maintenance jobs at Stansted are being axed.

About 272 out of 750 jobs with FLS Aerospace will be lost due to profit losses.

The Transport and General Workers Union (T and G) has promised a fight with the Danish owned company, which operates aircraft maintenance and repair businesses at Stansted, Manchester and Dublin.

The union said it was told of a decision to transfer skilled work from Stansted to Dublin, with the loss of 272 jobs, at a meeting with the company on Friday.

A spokesman for FLS, said: "Given the market conditions and the current volumes of aircraft heavy maintenance available to FLS Aerospace, the company cannot justify the costs associated with running its three heavy maintenance operations in Stansted, Manchester and Dublin."

But the union said the decision was hard to understand or accept given the Government's plans for expansion and the record numbers of passengers flying out of Stansted.

Spokesman for T and G, John Street, said: "If FLS think they can do this with the unions simply agreeing they are deluding themselves."

Published Monday January 19, 2004

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