Aer Lingus U-turn on funeral remains

FUNERAL directors and politicians yesterday welcomed Aer Lingus’s decision to continue transporting funeral remains from Britain.

The national carrier had planned to cancel the service, which was used to bring back the bodies of 1,200 emigrants each year.

It has now agreed to hire an independent contractor at Heathrow Airport in London to continue the service.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell said Aer Lingus needed to look after the dead to ensure the loyalty of the living.

“They are still our national airline and, even if some time in the future they are no longer publicly owned, they will still depend on Irish customers,” she said.

The airline’s cost-cutting plans had been criticised by funeral directors, emigrant groups and families whose relatives died abroad.

The mother of a 24-year-old Irishman who died in an accident in Sydney, Australia, spoke this week about the difficulty she experienced in getting his body transferred from Heathrow.

The Irish Association of Undertakers said the service was vital because families wanted to repatriate the remains of their relatives as soon as possible.

“Cost is not an issue - it’s the time factor. It’s so frustrating as a funeral director to say ‘We haven’t got flights confirmed yet, it’s going to be another three or four days’,” spokesman Gus Nichols said.

He added that families would not be able to fly bodies from other airports in Britain, as previously.

“It will be just Heathrow. Aer Lingus coverage will no longer be in the other UK airports and that still will be a problem for us,” he told RTÉ radio.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan welcomed Aer Lingus’s U-turn, claiming the original decision would have caused additional pressure on families.

“If Aer Lingus had cancelled this service, then this would have been a major problem. I am glad that this has now been averted.”