Aer Lingus pilots vote to keep flying

After reportedly going down to the wire, Aer Lingus pilots decided at the last minute to keep the airline flying, at least for the short term, by accepting a 10 per cent pay cut and 76 redundancies.

After three months of gruelling discussions, it appears that CEO Christoph Mueller’s planes to restructure the struggling Irish carrier to shave €97 million and shed 675 jobs, will proceed.

The airline’s pilots last week voted to accept the job cuts and pay reductions, but have yet to agree to the pension changes outlined in Mueller’s plan.  Having considered the outcome of the ballot, the pilots decided that the prospect any future strikes would ring very hollow.

However, the bad news is with the airline’s cash reserves likely to have reached €280 million at the end of 2009, down from €757 million two years earlier, the plans to restructure Aer Lingus were the bare minimum to keep the airline flying.

Airlines around the world have been facing tough times, with British flagship carrier reporting record losses, and just last week, Japan Airlines had to be bailed out.

Unfortunately, Aer Lingus doesn’t have the luxury of relying on a bailout, as the airline is publicly listed; some airline analysts believe it is difficult to see the airline operating as an independent company beyond the short term.