The Aer Lingus board has decided to proceed unilaterally with its plans to cut €97m worth of costs from the airline.
The move follows the failure of management and unions to reach agreement on alternative plans during seven weeks of negotiations, most recently at the Labour Relations Commission.
The decision was announced by Aer Lingus Chief Executive Christoph Mueller at Dublin Airport this evening.
Mr Mueller said the decision would most likely lead to further redundancies, possibly compulsory, above the 676 voluntary redundancies being sought under the draft plan.
'The board and management will now move to reduce capacity, further eliminating routes which are loss making as a result of our high cost base,' he said.
'This will result in the operation of fewer aircraft, which in turn will lead to additional redundancies beyond those included in the Transformation Plan. It is very likely that these redundancies will commence immediately and will be compulsory.'
Mr Mueller added that they had come close to agreement with the unions on a number of matters and praised the efforts of employees during the negotiations.
However, he said the exception were pilots and cabin crew, with whom agreement was not as close.
He said: 'The exception to this promising outcome is the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) and to a lesser extent, cabin crew.
'Instead of sustainable savings of a structural nature, only temporary savings over a short few years were offered by IALPA.'
Mr Mueller did not rule out further talks however, saying what had been achieved could be used as a basis in the future.
But he said equal treatment of all employees means that all employees, including flying staff, must agree.
IMPACT's Christina Carney reiterated that the union believed it had developed proposals that will go a very long way towards meeting the company's savings targets from cabin crew.
IALPA President Evan Cullen had no comment to make in relation to tonight's announcement.
