AER Lingus is in talks with trade unions over plans to shed up to 20 per cent of its 4,500-strong workforce in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to reports from a briefing this morning, union officials were told that the airline is seeking to cut around 900 jobs.
It’s unclear which jobs, routes or services will be hit. Further consultation is expected to take place over the coming weeks, but it’s understood the airline will seek to roll out a voluntary redundancy scheme.
In March, Aer Lingus told staff it would slash working hours and pay by half in response to the drop in capacity and passenger numbers amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
It warned then that further reductions would require additional measures.
Aer Lingus is owned by the International Airlines Group (IAG). On Tuesday, IAG-owned airline British Airways (BA) announced plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs under a restructuring and redundancy programme.
The group does not expect passenger numbers to return to pre-coronavirus levels for several years.
In a letter to staff, BA chief executive Alex Cruz said: “There is no government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely... We will see some airlines go out of business."
In Europe, France-KLM is set to receive €9bn (£7.8bn) in taxpayer money from the French and Dutch governments, while Luftansa is involved with talks with the German government regarding a potential bailout.
Last month the US Government agreed a $25bn (£19.7bn) bailout package for the airline industry.
