AER LINGUS LOOKING AT MORE JOBS CUTS AS IT PLANS TO MOVE HQ TO HANGAR 6 - Aer Lingus may have to consider around 1,100 compulsory redundancies and scaling back its operations as a contingency plan, if proposals currently being put to ballot on reducing staff costs are not accepted by staff. Separately Hangar 6 is in the news again - this time as Aer Lingus plans to move up to 400 staff there by the middle of the year.
Stephen Furlong, analyst at Davy Stockbrokers, says that Aer Lingus is facing a lot of challenges and its most immediate hurdle is to get the €97m cost cutting deal over the line. He says there is 'a lot of moving parts' to the Hangar 6 situation and Aer Lingus is looking for ways to use to the hangar to its maximum potential, as the airline's maintenance needs will not fully utilise the building. In terms of how the stock market will look at the move to Hangar 6, the analyst says that investors really just want to see how the airline will implement the €97m costing saving plan or not. 'What goes on at Hangar 6 is really just a good news story and not anything the stock market will really focus on,' he states.
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MIXED NEWS FROM PROPERTY MARKET - As things tighten up on the homeloan front with rates going up at various banks, news comes this morning that AIB will no longer accept mortgage switchers. This comes as there are new signs of life in the housing market, with Myhome.ie claiming there has been a threefold increase in second-hand properties going sale agreed last month compared to January 2009.
Angela Keegan, managing director of Myhome.ie, says she was quite shocked to hear the news from AIB this morning and says it is very difficult for homeowners to get better interest rates and manage their finances. She says the move suggests that AIB is just interested in first time buyers, where there is activity levels in the market.
Ms Keegan says Myhome.ie began to look at the market closely - especially the Dublin and Leinster areas - as it saw an increase in enquiries to estate agents from the property website. She says 658 properties go 'sale agreed' in Dublin in January of this year compared to just over 200 the same time last year. She admits that in some cases a sale may fall through even though it has been sale agreed.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The euro is trading at $1.3527 cents, and 87.66 pence sterling on the currency markets this morning.
