Funeral directors welcome Aer Lingus U-turn

Funeral directors and politicians today 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 agreed yesterday 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 Irish Association of Undertakers said the service was vital because families wanted to repatriate the remains of their relatives as soon as possible.

Spokesman Gus Nichols said: “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.”’

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 RTE radio.