Tricky times

One More Thing:There are four pictures of Dermot Mannion smiling in Aer Lingus's first annual report as a public company. Given that he pocketed almost €1 million last year from the airline, it's easy to see why.

Mannion got a performance-related bonus of €260,000 in 2006 and a pension top-up of €200,000 relating to a "special bonus" deal cut with the airline in April, 2005, when he agreed to quit Emirates and return home to pilot Aer Lingus's IPO.

Mannion's supporters would argue that he deserved his bonus for getting the airline's flotation across the line.

A pay freeze for senior executives is also being put in place for 2007 as part of its overall restructuring plan for the airline. This ignores the fact, however, that the airline reported a decline in its underlying operating profit and posted an after-tax loss of €69.9 million. In addition, the number of seats filled on each aircraft declined by four percentage points to 77.6 per cent.

That's to say nothing of the airline's handling of the Ryanair bid. The bill for that defence was €16 million and counting at the end of December. Mannion and his advisers were caught on the hop last November when Michael O'Leary launched his cheeky bid.

Let's not also forget a messy industrial relations spat with Impact and Siptu, that brought work stoppages, cancelled flights and left passengers frustrated. This standoff, which is aimed at yielding the airline cost savings of €20 million a year, has yet to be nailed.

This year will be even trickier one for Mannion as Ryanair's price war puts the squeeze on its rivals and the large American airlines begin to expand their services to Ireland under the Open Skies deal.

The outcome of these battles should determine whether Mannion beams from the pages of next year's annual report, presuming, of course, that Aer Lingus is still flying solo.