It's viable, it's very, very, very efficient, but now because of the strategic decision you are looking at a large slice of the workforce being taken away

John Wall, MSF

Almost 1,000 jobs will be cut from BAE's factory at Woodford in Manchester, 300 in Chadderton, also Manchester, and 219 at Prestwick.

Chief executive John Weston said the company had completed a detailed assessment of the likely impact on its business of the "severe downturn" in the commercial aerospace market.

Mr Weston said: "Since September the trading outlook in these markets has changed substantially."

Profit expectations for the Airbus, which BAE helps build, have been reduced significantly next year and the outlook for regional aircraft has "deteriorated sharply".

Mr Weston added: "Regrettably it has been concluded that our regional jet business is no longer viable in this environment."

BAE said it will continue to build four regional jets already in production but is scrapping a programme to build a successor to the current generation of regional aircraft.

Danny Carrigan is seeking talks with BAE Systems

John Wall, national secretary of the MSF union, said the Prestwick plant had "done absolute wonders since its demise was predicted a couple of years ago".

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "It's fought back from there, it's viable, it's very, very, very efficient, but now because of the strategic decision you are looking at a large slice of the workforce being taken away."

He said the firm's decision came as its other plants in Canada and Brazil were "getting more encouragement and help, financially from their governments".

He added: "We are lobbying parliament very shortly, next week, because of the problems the whole aerospace sector is having. At the specific sites there will be meetings taking place immediately."

Danny Carrigan, Scottish regional secretary of the AEEU, said he would be meeting the company some time over the next few days to discuss the job cuts.

Brian Wilson hopes to see redundancies reduced

He added: "We are extremely disappointed at this announcement and hoped the company would be able to avoid redundancies arising from September 11."

Industry Minister Brian Wilson said he hoped the eventual number of redundancies could be "significantly reduced" through redeployment within BAE Systems and at other companies.

"We will work closely with the company in order to maximise the alternative opportunities for those employees who are losing their jobs."

The minister added that while the industry's long term prospects were good, "it would be unrealistic to think that we can escape entirely from the impact of recent events and the repercussions they have had for the industry".