Aer Lingus has announced a number of changes to its winter schedule, which include the scrapping of some transatlantic services.
The airline says the moves are being made to address 'significant losses' generated over the winter period on some routes. Aer Lingus says these are now being exacerbated by 'extremely weak' demand and lower fares.
The airline is stopping Shannon flights to Chicago from September 1, while services from Dublin to Washington and San Francisco are being dropped from October 25. It says the restart of these services in summer next year will be 'subject to review'.
Aer Lingus is maintaining its winter schedule from Dublin to New York, Chicago and Boston, and from Shannon to Boston. The Shannon-Boston route is being cut from seven to four flights a week. But it says the Shannon to New York direct service remains 'under close review'.
The decisions announced today amount to a 25% cut in the number of seats on long-haul routes compared with 2008. One leased plane will be dropped to facilitate this.
Aer Lingus's long-haul business is 100% dependent on the Ireland-US market and it also has to deal with recession in Ireland. It says its fares on US routes fell by almost 20% in the first quarter of this year.
Speaking on RTE radio, Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington cutting out loss-making routes was very important to the company at the moment. He said the airline had earlier this year predicted a 'reasonably significant' loss for 2009, and nothing that had happened since had changed that view. 'Cutting out routes and loss-making operations is going to be beneficial to that,' he added.
On shorter routes, Aer Lingus is to reduce capacity at Dublin Airport from 24 planes to 22 for the winter, though there will be two new routes - to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and Monastir in Tunisia.
But it is planning to increase frequency on the Shannon-Heathrow service to three flights a day by basing an extra plane at the airport.
In Belfast, the number of planes will be cut from three to two for the winter, with routes to Barcelona, Faro, Milan, Paris, and Rome and Faro suspended. But new services between Belfast and Tenerife have been announced.
Aer Lingus is also adding an extra plane to its Gatwick base. This will increase the number of routes from eight to 14 with additional services to Bucharest, Eindhoven, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Vilnius and Warsaw.
Aer Lingus says pilots and cabin crew are being offered unpaid leave to deal with a surplus in staff caused by today's announcement. It says a broader cost-cutting plan will be announced shortly. 'Once this plan is announced we will commence a process of engagement with staff around the necessity of bringing our cost base into line with that of our closest competitors,' a statement said.
Shannon Airport director Martin Moroney said that while there was disappointment over the loss of the Chicago service for the winter, the retention of other routes and the basing of an aircraft at Shannon to strengthen the Heathrow service was 'extremely positive'.
On a review of the Shannon-New York service, Mr Moroney said that he was confident that the service was sustainable, particularly following a decision by Delta Airlines to suspend its winter service on the route.
