Killeen: Airline must explain Shannon pull-out

A JUNIOR minister has demanded Aer Lingus explain a decision to remove its Heathrow slots on the highly lucrative Shannon route.

Official confirmation is expected this morning from the airline that it is removing the flights to Heathrow from Shannon and moving them to Belfast International Airport.

Ahead of the announcement, Minister of State Tony Killeen said yesterday: “It clearly has implications for employment. I understand Aer Lingus may be saying 45 jobs, some other reports put it at 100 or more. In any event, there are people whose jobs are at risk.”

He said even if the airline offers redeployment, he did not feel any of the workers at Shannon would take it.

“Even if it were Cork or Dublin, I know virtually every Aer Lingus employee in Shannon and I can’t think of even five who would be interested if that is the option that is available.”

Workers held an emergency meeting last night at which it emerged the company is leasing two of its total Heathrow landing slots to another airline. It is unclear whether it will lease any of the Shannon routes as part of that reorganisation. The workers have called for clarity on the leasing issue.

Mr Killeen said there were huge implications for business travellers in the west of the country as the Heathrow link was the key way of getting to European destinations and the US.

“I have used the Aer Lingus-Heathrow service very frequently. I don’t think I have ever seen 10 vacancies on a plane,” he said. “With very high load factors like that, they are saying the yield is not sufficient. That is for them to explain.

“But one of the outcomes undoubtedly is that the west of Ireland becomes less accessible for business travellers and if Aer Lingus cannot be persuaded to change this decision, and it may not be too late to persuade them to do that, it is vital that new services to Heathrow be put in place at the right times to enable people to get flights onwards.”

He said there was no indication that Aer Lingus is pulling out of Shannon, as it has published its winter schedule, which includes daily direct flights to the US. However, he reiterated the words of the mayor of Clare in saying the credibility of Aer Lingus in relation to its commitment to the west was in question.

SIPTU’s Tony Carroll said that in any discussions between the union and Aer Lingus in the past nine months, the airline had said any expansion would not be at the expense of an existing station. “This flies in the face of what the company has said to us,” he said.