THE region was rocked yesterday by the revelation that another 110 jobs are to be lost in its manufacturing sector.

World-leading aircraft components company CAV Aerospace said it is to make 60 redundancies as the global economic downturn continues to affect demand.

The potential job cuts at the plant, in Consett, County Durham, will take redundancy numbers at the site to 100 in six months, after 40 posts were lost from its 400-strong workforce at the end of last year.

BAE Systems also delivered a blow to the region by cutting 50 jobs at its factory in Newcastle, which was recently given the £300m contract to make a fleet of next-generation Terrier vehicles for the British Army.

The defence company – which also announced the closure of three factories in Leeds, Telford and Guildford, which together employ almost 2,000 – said that up to 100 of the affected workers at sites earmarked for closure could be transferred to the North-East.

Last night, both CAV Aerospace and BAE Systems expressed regret at having to make the cuts at this time.

Owen McFarlane, chief executive of CAV Aerospace, said the plant – whose products are used in most aircraft currently in operation – had introduced shorter working hours, different shift patterns and cost-cutting measures in an attempt to avoid redundancies.

“In common with many other businesses in all sectors, we are having to manage our way through the current worldwide economic difficulties, but this is an unprecedented time,” he said.

“We have taken actions with the aim of retaining jobs and protecting the long-term viability of the business for the future. We have done, and will continue to do, everything we can to safeguard the hundreds of jobs that have been created in Consett.”

BAE Systems said it was having to adopt its “transformational programme” due to a dip in demand, caused in part by the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

David Allott, managing director of the global combat systems business, said: ‘‘While we clearly regret having to take this step, our forecast UK order intake has reduced and we have to match the size of our business appropriately to the projected nature and volume of workload.’’