Aer Lingus Talks of Staff Cuts

It now seems that the well known airline Aer Lingus will be joining the long list of airlines that are set to axe staff. However, on top of these cuts, Aer Lingus will be asking the staff that is left to take pay cuts in a new bid for survival.

Aer Lingus’ plans are are try to cut more than 20 percent of its workforce, or around 700 people. They will also be asking staff that earn more than €35,000 a year to take some pay cuts. Right now, Aer Lingus said that it is trying to save almost €97 million a year by the end of 2011. It has already been able to cut 100 jobs and refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and more staff cuts as well.

Just this August, Aer Lingus went on to report a €93 million loss for the first half of the year. This is almost four times the figure that was reported for the same time last year. This move follows British Airways, which just revealed recently that it would be making 1,000 redundancies and forcing 3,000 staff to work part time.

The Aer Lingus chief exectuive, Christopher Mueller, said that the outlook for each of their core markets is poor. Thus, the airline cannot expect any near term recovery. He went on to say that Aer Lingus cannot continue its operating base, which at the time, is uncompetitive when compared to its closest peers.

As of right now, many airlines around the world are doing what they can to try and save money in light of the economic downturn. Aer Lingus is now on that list.