As an Aer Lingus manager said in the press a few weeks ago "If Aer Lingus are sneezing then other airlines have the flu"!
Aer Lingus are fine and will ride this crises out. However one thing you will learn about Aer Lingus (like many other airlines) is that they will use any excuse to drop operations which they do not want. This time round it is their ground operations they want rid of. Its all about creating a leaner operation and boosting profits and that is exactly what Aer Lingus are doing here. BFS was set up with no ground staff. LHR had its ground ops unit sold off 9 years ago to Swissport, SNN is totally over staffed now that most of the routes are gone from there and ORK has been kept at a very trimmed level despite a certain degree of expansion taking place down there.
Now as former ground staff of EI in DUB I fear they may be shooting themselves in the foot. To lose your identity in your home base is a major decision to make. They have some very long serving and dedicated employees in Dublin (and ORK and SNN) and they have kept the operations ticking over throughout all the changes of the last 8 years.
I fear we will be hearing from the unions in forms of work stoppages very soon!