FIFTY jobs could be lost at an airline engineering firm in Southend.

Inflite Southend, based in the Aviation Way business park in Southend Airport, has issued about 50 of its workers risk of redundancy notices as part of a restructuring of the business, which deals with maintenance and repair of aircraft.

The company has warned of redundancies after shifting the focus of its Southend premises to component repair and overhaul at the expense of hangar maintenance.

Inflite managing director Bob Peck said he would attempt to stem the impact of the company overhaul by transferring employees to its others sites in Chelmsford, Stansted, and Manchester.

He said: “Strategically it has been decided that Inflite MRO Services Ltd at Southend, is to concentrate its future business on the growth and development of its component repair and overhaul operation.

“In light of this decision Inflite has placed a risk of redundancy notice on its personnel associated with its hangar maintenance operation- approximately 50 in number.

“We, of course, will actively look to mitigate any job losses through voluntary redundancy as well as internal transfers to other Inflite sites.”

Council leader Ron Woodley, whose administration has placed an emphasis on Southend being "open for business", is hopeful the number of redundancies can be kept as low as possible.

He said: “It’s up to individual businesses to restructure themselves and how they want to run and all I can say is I hope compulsory redundancies are kept to a minimum and they can relocate staff to other positions in the company.

“Even as a council we have regrettably had to make redundancies because of funding cuts from central government but that is also why as an administration we are doing our best to create jobs in the town.”

Opposition leader John Lamb said he was disappointed the town could lose a skilled workforce.

The Tory added: “The airport has been involved in maintenance and repair for many years and has brought about apprenticeships that have created a highly skilled workforce so it would be a shame to see that workforce reduced.

“We understand that in the current climate businesses often have to restructure to bring down costs and become more efficient but I would hope, as much as possible, people are able to leave voluntarily, either to other areas of the business or through voluntary redundancy.

“A talent pool can also be useful in these situations because, although the workforce needs to be flexible, a skilled workforce is very valuable and if people move or retire those skills can be brought back through the talent pool to allow those businesses to survive and thrive.”

  • This article was corrected on April 6, 2016. It originally claimed jobs were threatened as a result of Inflite leaving Southend, when in fact the business is restructuring its operations at the site. We also wishes to clarify the aircraft in the featured picture do not belong to Inflite.