AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURER Bombardier, which employs 5,000 people in Northern Ireland, confirmed yesterday it has signed a contract to sell eight of its Q400 aircraft to the Greek aviation company MIG Aviation 3 Ltd. The aircraft will be operated by Olympic Airways.

MIG has also taken options on an additional eight aircraft.

The announcement, which was made at the Paris Air Show, comes after Bombardier announced on Monday that it had secured the sale of 15 of its CRJ1000 aircraft to the Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum.

According to Bombardier, the value of yesterday’s contract with MIG is approximately $224 million (€161.3 million) and could increase to $468 million if the eight options are exercised.

Bombardier’s Belfast plant is responsible for producing the forward, mid and aft fuselage for the Q400 aircraft, as well as some flight components. Approximately 780 employees work on the Q400 line across operations and functional support.

However, a spokesperson for Bombardier in Belfast said the order would have no specific impact on jobs at the Belfast plant but would help it to maintain current manpower levels.

Bombardier, which is Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturer, announced 1,000 redundancies in April.

The Canadian-owned company also announced yesterday that it was on track to deliver the first CSeries airliner in 2013. The Belfast site is responsible for the design and manufacture of the composite wings for the CSeries aircraft.

The company forecasts there will be a demand for 6,300 aircraft in this category over the next 20 years.