Bell Helicopters says strike impact limited in 2009

PARIS (Reuters) - Textron (TXT.N) unit Bell Helicopters said its production would be largely unaffected by a strike at one of its production plants as long as the work stoppage did not continue until next year.

"We have enough parts and enough capacity to get us through the end of 2009," a spokesman for the company told journalists at the Paris Air Show on Monday, adding Bell's business could be impacted in 2010, depending on how long the strike lasts.

The company said 2,500 workers had gone on strike in the Fort Worth, Texas area after a union voted in favour of a work stoppage overnight.

Bell expects to deliver between 170 and 180 aircraft this year, a target it previously slashed from 240 as the global economic crisis crimps demand.

The strike adds to parent company Textron's woes, less than a week after its Cessna unit, the world's largest maker of business jets, said it would slash another 1,300 jobs as order cancellations mounted.

The recession has posed a double whammy to Textron, which is working to radically downsize its finance business and coping with a simultaneous sharp drop in demand for aircraft.

Textron in April slashed its profit target for the year by about half.