I got a sense from the radio today that most of the positions that are to go are Pilots and Cabin Crew. It also said that they expect the exercise of people exiting by the end of 2011(did I get that bit wrong?).
If that is the likely date for completion, this would indicate that 1. Aer Lingus is grossly overstaffed in crew (we were led to believe that the main saving in labour terms were from ground positions mostly Admin) 2. The company do not anticipate that their sales will improve or any growth in terms of expansion will occure within this time (Ie given that they will not need these positions?) 3.Is it going to be that the company recruits after the redundancy exercise is complete when needed (in which case the redundancy costs were not necessary?) and finally does it mean that contract positions like Ryanair do will be the order of the day?
I recognise that Aer Lingus need to cut back and this will have to be embraced by everyone. And as one previous poster said pay cuts are commonplace today. But my understanding was that aer Lingus were going to trim out unnecessary roles to make them leaner to enable them to grow in the future, and not necessarily in Ireland and the recession will not be here forever, at which time many of these crew will be needed?