Aer Lingus Warns that More Redundancies Are on the Way

According to Aer Lingus, they have already warned their staff that some more compulsory redundancies could be on the way. However, this will only happen if the carrier does not get enough volunteers for redundancies coming forward.

The well known Irish carrier, which has been in talks with unions recently, said that it has saved €97 million under its Transformation Plan. This does include the €74 million that it saved on staff costs already. The rest of the money came from non staff costs.

According to some reports, the carrier is still looking to get rid of about one fifth of its workers. The carrier went on to say that they would prefer for these redundancies to be voluntary, but compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. They went on to say that the alternative means they will include further reductions in capacity, which are the result from a uneconomic cost base.

The talks between Aer Lingus and the unions are set to conclude on November 30^th. Just earlier in the month Aer Lingus did report a 9.7 percent fall in revenue for its Q3. The carrier said that its cash flow since the end of December 2008 has fallen by 38.8 percent to just €399.9 million by the end of September.

This big drop was due in part to the €107 million restructuring costs and the final payment on the two new A330 aircrafts. The Transformation Plan was instigated last month after the arrival of the new chief executive, Christoph Muller.

Other airlines are struggling in this crazy market just like Aer Lingus. In fact, Japan Airlines and British Airways find themselves in the same boat as Aer Lingus, plus British Airways is also dealing with strike threats.