NI Loses More Jobs

Aer Lingus is cutting its Belfast service by taking one plane out of action and axing  its routes to Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Rome and Faro.

The airline is making the cuts, which will affect the winter schedule, just one month after it reported losses of €93m  for the first half of 2009 — almost four times the figure for that period last year. It is also the company's worst ever six-month performance, prompting this latest program of cost saving measures. Sources said cabin crew and pilots are likely to be targeted in a new cost-cutting plan.

This latest reduction will also mean the lay-off of 56 cabin crew, based in Dublin and a further 7 cabin crew based in Cork. All those affected work on short haul flights and, with the airline planning to slash short haul services over the winter the number of aircraft based in Dublin will be cut from 24 to 22. 

Aer Lingus said the 56 Dublin-based employees would go at the end of the month when their contracts are up. Trade union Impact said the staff were angry at their treatment, as they were informed via text message to expect a call from bosses. Union official Christina Carney said: “I have been speaking to these workers today and they are devastated.”  Ms Carney said the employees had worked hard for the airline and many had mortgages and now faced an uncertain future. Ms Carney was particulary upset by the way in which Aer Lingus chose to contact the staff involved, opting to send text messages to those affected.

Staff were contacted by bosses via text message on Monday and were told to expect a call explaining how talks with union chiefs had progressed at the Republic’s Labour Relations Commission. They were then contacted by telephone on Monday night and told that their contracts were not being renewed. Ms Carney said: “There is a lot of shock and anger at how they have been treated and the manner in which the news was broken has added to that.”

Management said the reduction in the temporary staff, whose contracts were "naturally coming to an end", was due to the knock-on effect of a reduction in flights.
However, it said all the affected cabin crew had been offered jobs at Gatwick Airport and some had applied.

Proposed new services from Belfast to Tenerife and Dublin to Fuerteventura and Tunisia will come into effect in October as planned.