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18th May 2021

Aer Lingus to permanently close its base at Shannon airport

Stephen Porzio

air travel resumption

The airline’s base at Cork airport will also temporarily close.

Aer Lingus has announced it will permanently close its cabin crew base at Shannon airport.

A statement from Aer Lingus revealed the airline lost €103 million in the first three months of 2021, on top of a loss of €361 million in 2020.

On account of the crisis faced by the aviation industry in the past 15 months due to Covid-19, Aer Lingus explained that “immediate actions and structural changes are required at the airline”.

The statement reads: “The airline must be more cost-efficient and productive in order to generate the cash required to rebuild its financial health.”

As such, the airline revealed on Tuesday that it will permanently close the Aer Lingus cabin crew base at Shannon airport, as well as temporarily close the Aer Lingus base at Cork airport from September until late November 2021.

Aer Lingus also said it will commence a review of its ground handling requirements at Cork and Shannon airports and will continue to offer reduced working hours, associated pay reductions and lay-offs to staff.

The airline confirmed to staff that it will emerge smaller from the pandemic and that there will be a need for redundancies.

81 cabin crew worked from the Shannon base and will either be offered enhanced severance terms or where possible, a base transfer to Dublin.

There are also 45 ground staff at the Shannon base who will continue to be laid-off.

Meanwhile, 60 ground staff and 138 cabin crew in the Cork base will be laid off from early September until late November 2021.

In its statement, Aer Lingus said: “The level of lay-off may be subject to further extension or change based upon work requirements.”

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