Aer Lingus to close Shannon base amid restructuring plan

As feared, Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin Int’l) outlined in a statement on May 18 plans to close its base at Shannon Airport, among other cost cuts and layoffs, as part of a company-wide restructuring programme. It will also temporarily shut down its base at Cork from September until late November to coincide with construction work on the runway, and it will review its groundhandling operations at both locations, it said. At Shannon, 81 cabin crew who work from the base will be offered enhanced severance or to transfer to the airline’s Dublin Int’l hub, while a further 45 ground staff in Shannon will be laid off. At Cork, Aer Lingus employs about 60 ground staff and 98 cabin crew. In its statement, the IAG International Airlines Group-owned flag carrier said it had “confirmed to staff that the airline will emerge smaller from the pandemic, and there will be a requirement for redundancies.” It added that “structural change will also be required across the business” and “the required structural changes will be specific to each business area but will focus primarily on the areas where there is off-market pay, terms, conditions, and work practices.” Explaining that the measures were necessary after it posted a EUR103 million euro (USD126 million) loss for the first quarter of 2021, which compounded a EUR563 million (USD689 million) loss for 2020, Aer Lingus said: “The cumulative impact of the crisis over the last 15 months means immediate actions and structural changes are required” to generate the cash needed to rebuild its financial health. Aer Lingus has blamed its strife on the Irish government’s tough Covid-19 travel restrictions. Responding to appeals in the parliament for the government to intervene, Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that the layoffs were “very sad news” and promised “to respond to the aviation issue,” the national broadcaster RTÉ reported. The government is currently considering proposals for a gradual reopening of international travel. In a brief statement, Shannon Airport said that “restoring regional connectivity and international travel will be pivotal to economic recovery as we emerge from the effects of the pandemic. Critical to this will be the urgent implementation of a clear road map and timelines for the restart of aviation.” The Irish Airline Pilots Association, which represents more than 1,200 pilots at carriers such as Aer Lingus and Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int’l), said the layoffs were a direct result of government policy “and its continued inaction on aviation,” describing Ireland as an “outlier” in the European Union with “the most restrictive travel regime” yet all the while ignoring the plight of aviation and its workers.