MONTREAL, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Canadian airplane maker Bombardier Inc. canceled its employee layoffs and will boost production, its aerospace president said Wednesday.
"Today we are talking more about stability in our organization and we'll see in some cases if we will recall some employees," Aerospace President Pierre Beaudoin said.
The world's third-largest airplane manufacturer said its aerospace backlog had grown 38 percent since the start of the fiscal year to a record $18.2 billion.
Second-quarter aircraft orders more than doubled to 187, including 84 for commercial regional jets. This compares with nine aircraft orders in 2006's same period, it said.
As a result, production is being sped up to one aircraft every four days from every five days so the company can make about 50 regional jets this fiscal year and 57 in fiscal 2009, which starts Feb. 1.
Before Wednesday's announcement, Bombardier completed 874 of its 1,330 planned layoffs, the Montreal company said.
Despite the strength of its aerospace division, Bombardier Wednesday reported a net loss of $71 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with net income of $58 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier.
It said this was due to a writeoff of its 20 percent investment in the Metronet consortium, responsible for operating and maintaining much of the London Underground train network.
