A Yeadon company may be forced to shed 251 jobs because of problems in the aerospace industry.

AETC Ltd, which makes components for aerospace engines and industrial gas turbines, currently employs 685 people at its two sites at the Yeadon Airport Industrial estate on Harrogate Road.

The firm, which changed its name from AE Turbines in 1996, made products which were used in some of the world's earliest gas turbine engines. It has now entered into a 90 day consultation in a bid to try and limit the number of redundancies it will have to make.

Ian Dorman, AETC's human resources manager, said an announcement had been made to employees on Monday.

"We have entered into a 90 day consultation period with the workers, the redundancies will be subject to that consultation. This is a direct result of the continuing problems in the aerospace industry and cutbacks in our industrial gas turbine company."

Mr Dorman added that the company had also suffered from a loss in confidence internationally following the bankruptcy of energy trading giant Enron in the United States.

The company, which also has a site in Leicester, which will not be affected by the job cuts, hopes it will not have to make any more redundancies.

Mr Dorman added: "I can't foresee what will happen, but hopefully there will be no more redundancies, it is a sizeable number by any standards and hopefully we've hit the bottom."

The proposed redundancies will be across the board and include management and manufacturing staff.

Leeds West MP Harold Best, whose constituency includes the Yeadon company, said: "We've been celebrating the fact that unemployment figures in North West Leeds have been steadily falling since 1987 and now we have to manage this rapid increase, I'm not sure where they will go.

"It is a serious blow to the industry in our area. It is terrible for all the people involved from the top management all the way down."

AETC, which was bought by United States firm PCC in 1966, makes a variety of products including rotating blades for aircraft and stationary nozzle guide vanes for the aerospace and industrial gas turbine industries.