Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion has denied union allegations that last week's announcement on lowering terms and conditions for staff from next week was provocative.
The airline says costs at the airline are out of line with competitors but unions say the company has failed to negotiate with them and is in breach of existing agreements.
Speaking as he arrived at the Labour Relations Commission for talks with the unions, Mr Mannion said the airline had announced the proposed changes back in early December. He said there was a lot of material to be digested but that he felt enough time had been left to deal with it. The talks were continuing on Friday evening.
The airline wants to introduce lower terms and conditions for new staff hired after February 1 and for existing staff from March 1.
SIPTU representative Christy McQuillan accused Aer Lingus of tearing up the rule book. He warned that if the company was not going to play by the rules there would be a industrial dispute at the airline.
IMPACT official Michael Landers said the proposed changes would have implications for his members in terms of cash, leave entitlements and other conditions. But he also warned that it would set a pattern for the future whereby the airline would feel free to breach agreements at will.
Earlier, Aer Lingus said overall it carried 7.3% more passengers in 2006 than it did the previous year.
In the year it carried a total of 8.6 million passengers - and in December it carried 634,000 passengers.
Aer Lingus says its load factor in 2006, or the amount of seats it filled, was 77.6% - which is a 3.8 point fall on the 2005 figure. On short haul flights the load factor declined 1.5 points in the year, and fell 5.8 percentage points on long haul.
In December the load factor was 72.6%, a 1.2 point fall on the December 2005 figure. The load factor on short haul flights fell 0.6 points and on long haul flights it went down 1.4 points.
With 11.6% more seats overall available though, passengers on short haul flights went up 7.3% in 2006. Aer Lingus said passengers were up 9.3% on short haul flights and fell 4.4% on long-haul flights in 2006.
Passengers on short haul flights increased 5% in December, and were up 4.6% on long haul flights - compared to the same month the previous year.
