Around 34 people are set to lose their jobs at an island company because of coronavirus.

Triumph, at School Road, Onchan, is seeking voluntary redundancies as the aviation sector struggles.

Some 134 people work at the plant making hydraulic components for aircraft landing gear.

But there is hope that those affected will be able to find work at other manufacturing firms in the island, which have vacancies, Chris Allen, managing director of Triumph UK, told the Examiner.

Mr Allen said: ’It’s completely regrettable and we had a great year last year.

’This (coronavirus) has been a once-in-a-lifetime event which has rocked the industry.

’Nobody could have predicted this happening.’

Mr Allen, a former president of the island’s Chamber of Commerce, told the Examiner: ’We have had to take some austerity measures and as a result we have to reduce our headcount.’

He stressed that the people losing their jobs were not losing them through any fault of their own. He said: ’We would love to hold on to them.’

The job losses are set to include shop floor staff as well as management and in the first instance the company is inviting people to volunteer to take redundancy.

The island’s aerospace ’cluster’ is pulling together to help. It is understood other companies in the island deal with military orders, which have not suffered as badly as the commercial sector.

Mr Allen said every support will be given in trying to fill the vacancies at other sites and this would ’ease the hardship’. He added that the virus meant customers were not flying, so planes have been stalled and as a consequence air passenger traffic is down, leading to a reduction in order books.

Mr Allen said: ’Industry analysts are predicting that flying won’t return to pre-Covid-19 levels for three or four years.’

The Triumph Group is headquartered in Pennsylvania and operates in 38 locations in North America, Europe and Asia.