A NEW package to help boost the aerospace industry has been launched by the North West Aerospace Alliance following the announcements of huge job losses across East Lancashire

Initial funding of more than £20 million has already been pledged by the North West Development Agency to help establish the North West as the premier aerospace region in Europe, with plans for a centre dedicated to aerospace innovation.

The North West Aerospace Alliance (NWWA) revealed that the centre will be at the core of five major projects planned for launch in 2002 to stave off the worst effects of the global downturn in the industry.

Already more than 2,000 redundancies have been announced across the North West, including 295 at Rolls Royce in Barnoldswick and 149 at BAE Systems in Samlesbury.

The strategy would be based on the following projects:

A North West Aerospace Innovation Centre.

Supplier to vendor status.

A Mini Consortia.

Foresight issues.

Dennis Mendoros, NWWA chairman, said: "These initiatives are needed to help the aerospace industry combat the global downturn which has been compounded by the events in New York in September.

"Things have reached crisis proportions and it is now time to act to ensure that we maintain our leading edge position and total capability in aerospae manufacture which generates more than £5billion a year for the region's economy.

"There will be an upturn but we don't expect to see a general overall improvement until 2005. What we must ensure is that, as far as possible, we retain the infrastructure and work towards developing the skills we need to respond positively as the picture improves."

Fortunes of the industry are forecast to see a revival in 2004/5 when major programmes including the A380 double-decker airliner, the A400M transport aircraft, the Joint Strike Fighter and Eurofighter Typhoon, all start to make significant impact on workloads across the sector.

The NWWA action plan aimed at helping to stave off further job losses, preserving the region's aerospace sector and preparing companies for the eventual upturn, is based on several projects.

These include the innovation centre which will bring together the eight North West universities to support future aerospace and related high technology products and services.

Another project will be the 'supplier to vendor status' which will improve the competitive position of companies and improve employment prospects of skilled people by elevate manufacturers in the supply chain to become vendors of added value products.

The Alliance will work towards forming a mini consortia to bring together companies to bid for larger packages of work and long term 'kit of parts' contracts on major programmes, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.

A final aim in the action plan will be to improve links under the Government's Foresight Programme and ensure that the UK defence and aerospace remains a major contributor to wealth and national security.