Aer Lingus chief confident of pilot deal

AER Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller has told staff that not only has management all but accepted cost saving proposals for pilots established through a third party tribunal, but also that it will proceed with a new review of the airline within weeks.

Earlier this week, the airline and representatives of its 450 pilots were presented with the findings of an arbitration tribunal which had been asked to make recommendations on how pilots could contribute €30 million towards an overall €97m cost saving package sought by management.

The tribunal had been necessitated by the fact that, while the company had been able to agree savings with all the other sections of the airline, hundreds of hours of negotiation with the pilots had failed to yield a deal.