Aer Lingus outlines detail of survival plan

Following a three hour meeting between unions and management, Aer Lingus today outlined the details of it's survival plan. The main points outlined by the airline are as follows :

Headcount will be reduced by 1,500 through a combination of outsourcing and redundancies and a pay freeze will be imposed on remaining staff through the end of 2009.

Cabin crew bases in Shannon and Heathrow will be closed with crew being offered relocation to Dublin /Cork or the option of redundancy.  

Services from San Franciso, New York and Boston will be crewed by US based cabin crew from summer 2009.

The airline's base at Shannon will be closed.

The long haul aircraft fleet is to be reduced by one aircraft to eight units.

The plan is intended to save an annualised €74m.

The unions have now left the meeting to discuss their next move and have not ruled out strike action.