Airline defends pensions decision

Aer Lingus has defended its decision not to up its €110m funding for a staff pension scheme saying it was never required to deliver 100% coordinated coverage.

The airline is embroiled in a prolonged dispute with unions over how to address an almost €800m shortfall in the Irish Airline Superannuation Scheme (IASS).

Proposals on how to address that shortfall have been formulated by the trustees and include a 20% reduction in members’ benefits.