A meeting between Aer Lingus management and staff at Shannon about the airline's radical cost-cutting plan broke up shortly after 6pm
A spokesperson for the company said they outlined the cost-cutting plans to staff, emphasising that the long-haul service is where the problem lies with the airline.
It is causing significant losses and the airline says they need to find savings over the next six weeks.
The spokesperson was not specific about how exactly the cuts would affect staff in Shannon but union sources later confirmed Aer Lingus is seeking 102 redundancies among cabin crew in Shannon and 229 cabin crew nationally.
An aircraft is based at Shannon to service the Shannon-New York service four times a week.
Management briefed staff in Cork prior to the Shannon meeting.
Earlier, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has called on the Government to explain why it did not accept his airline's takeover offer for Aer Lingus.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Mr O'Leary claimed that if the Government had accepted Ryanair's offer, it would have doubled the size of Aer Lingus' fleet and create at least 1,000 new jobs.
His comments came as Aer Lingus management briefs staff at Shannon about the company's cost cutting plan, which would see 676 redundancies and savings of €97 million.
Yesterday, unions at the company threatened industrial action if the proposals were imposed without agreement.
In a statement to the markets yesterday morning, Aer Lingus said it needed to reduce annual costs by almost €100m before 2011.
