Crucial times for Aer Lingus
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BAD news on the double for Aer Lingus as cabin crew rejected a €97m cost-reduction programme and long-haul passenger figures for February showed yet another slump.
Pilots had voted in favour of the savings plan by a majority of four to one, and ballots by ground operations, support staff and maintenance workers have yet to be concluded, but there must be fears that the deal which took 10 weeks to negotiate under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission could fall through, threatening the airline's existence.
Aer Lingus is in the grip of a financial crisis. Global economic problems and high-fuel prices are crippling airlines all over the world. Low-fare giants such as Ryanair are proving more resilient.
Chief executive Christoph Mueller has promised the staff an "amputation" rather than "plastic surgery" under the latest cost-recovery programme and an end to what he called "legacy" salary rates that supposedly still linger from the days of state ownership.
Dire warning escalated into threat, at least in the eyes of the cabin crew workers, when the airline issued a statement that there would be up to 1,100 compulsory redundancies if agreement on the cost-cutting plan was not reached, and yesterday's rejection was the workers' defiant response.
Mr Mueller previously put the airline's chances of survival at "just higher than fifty fifty". He may now be revising those odds.
Aer Lingus must cut costs or die.
