Airline seeks 100 redundancies

Aer Lingus has announced it is looking for 100 further voluntary redundancies as part of a policy to make cost-cutting part of the airline’s day-to-day operations.

In an interim management statement released to the stock exchange the airline announced that, due to losses sustained in a traditionally weak first quarter, it was seeking the redundancies.

The package on offer is understood to be four weeks’ pay plus statutory per year of service. The package is capped at 104 weeks’ pay. Workers will have one month to apply for the package.

The figures show the airline’s losses grew by €9.4m to €45.5m for the first three months of the year. The 20% increase in costs was as a result of one-off expenses in establishing a Virgin ‘wet lease’ operation in the UK, planned changes to the long-haul fleet and slightly weaker trading on UK routes.

Aer Lingus’ chief executive Christoph Müller said that the losses the airline had recorded were proof that the airline had to keep a sharp eye on costs.

“In line with the ongoing requirement to streamline our organisation structure and identify cost-saving initiatives, we are launching a voluntary severance programme, with a goal of reducing headcount by approximately 100 staff by year end,” he said.

Despite the mounting losses, the airline actually saw an increase in revenue of 3.3%, up to €259.7m. Aer Lingus reported that passenger numbers had grown by 2.2% with particularly strong growth on long-haul routes, which were up by 5.6%.

“Trends identified in Q1 2013, including higher airport charges, the strength of long haul and softness in GBP and our UK market have the potential to remain a feature for the rest of the year. On that basis, we currently expect 2013 operating profit, before exceptional items, to be broadly in line with last year,” said Mr Müller.

There is also an expectation that Aer Lingus will settle the €700m deficit in its pension fund later this year. “I am quite confident we are going to see an outcome of this entire issue in 2013,” Mr Müller told journalists, saying a ruling by the Labour Relations Commission was possible within weeks and would then be voted on by unions and shareholders.