Maintenance workers at Aer Lingus have tonight voted to accept the proposed cost
reduction package put forward by the airline.
Aer Lingus has convened an emergency board meeting for tomorrow to discuss the company’s future after cabin crew last week voted to reject the airline’s €97 million restructuring plan.
The airline said tomorrow's publication of its full-year financial results for 2009 would now be deferred because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the restructuring deal.
Aer Lingus is seeking to save €97 million across the various sectors in the airline under the plan which involved about 600 redundancies and 10 per cent pay cuts.
But management has signalled that it is working on a contingency plan involving more than 1,100 compulsory redundancies and a major scaling back of routes if staff reject the proposals.
On Friday, cabin crew, who are represented by Impact, voted decisively to reject the deal which has been accepted by pilots and administration staff.
Despite the result of the Impact ballot, Aer Lingus is determined to achieve annual savings of €97 million, the airline said in a statement today.
“These savings are vital to realign the cost base of the company and position Aer Lingus for a successful future,” it said.
“The company’s board of directors will meet tomorrow to formally approve the steps that will now be taken to achieve these cost savings,” it added.
Aer Lingus also announced it was deferring tomorrow’s release of its financial results for last year, as they contained a restructuring charge related to its planned cost-cutting proposals which were now in doubt.
Aer Lingus, which has fended off two hostile bids by rival Ryanair, is expected to announce a 2009 operating loss of €87.7 million, in-house broker Goodbody said.
Over 80 per cent of members of the trade union Unite, which represents 200 workers at Dublin, Cork and Shannon, tonight opted to back the proposal.