Flights from Dublin to popular destinations to end and 500 jobs to go at Aer Lingus

Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, and Minneapolis routes will be discontinued later this year.

The airline say it is looking to stabilise its operating margins in order to attract ongoing investment.

Aer Lingus will be reducing its annual flight numbers by around 6% – across both long and short haul routes.

Regarding transatlantic, the Denver route will be discontinued after September 28 this year. Minneapolis will end after October 24 and Las Vegas will stop after December 3.

Aer Lingus will move its Seattle route to a summer only service at the end of October.

Regarding short-haul European routes, Aer Lingus will stop its Dublin-Split route after September 29 and move to summer-only operations on its Frankfurt, Malta and Hamburg routes in early November.

Trade Union SIPTU has demanded an urgent meeting airline management following the announcement.

The union has warned that the sudden announcement has caused significant worry and uncertainty among workers and their families.

SIPTU Organiser, Terry Gill said: "This morning's announcement has come as a complete surprise to our members and has understandably caused massive concern and uncertainty.

"While we were aware that Aer Lingus had undertaken headcount reductions of around 20% within senior and middle management structures in recent months, we had not been advised of, nor did we anticipate, a wider workforce reduction of this magnitude. At this early stage, the full details of this proposal and its exact impact across individual business units remain unclear and this must be addressed urgently.”