Abbotsford’s Cascade Aerospace has issued layoff notices to 38 employees.

For the most part the layoffs will impact aircraft maintenance engineers.

“It’s largely related to a change in the work mix so just less shop floor labour than has been needed in the past,” said Justin Currie, Cascade’s chief operating officer.

He said a shift from high volume commercial to military contracts has created a greater need for program management, engineers and analysts, rather than floor labour.

He said it’s a cyclical business and sometimes you can’t smooth out the flow of work.

“Peaks and valleys are unfortunately a reality of the aerospace and defence business,” he said adding business is good, just changing.

Employees were given 30 days notification and the company is working with the union to explore other options for the employees being released.

Cascade also announced last week that it has been awarded a multi-year contract by the Canadian government for the Optimized Weapon System Support (OWSS) of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF’s) legacy C-130 Hercules avionics system.

The new contract should complement the services Cascade provides as Canada’s C-130 Primary Air Vehicle Optimized Weapons Systems Manager, which includes the in service support, fleet management, aircraft modification, engineering, maintenance, and repair of Canada’s legacy model C-130 fleet.

Cascade also provides in service support services for Canada’s C-130J fleet under a 20 year contract with Lockheed Martin.

Under this latest contract Cascade will develop operating plans for the program management and support of C-130 avionics repair and overhaul.