Restructuring plans at Shannon Airport are to get underway immediately after unions and management settled outstanding difficulties last night.
After a round table meeting, union concerns were dealt with and the €36m restructuring plan will now be implemented.
It involves 187 redundancies, the outsourcing of some operations and the end of Shannon Airport Authority in the catering business. A spokeswoman for the airport said it hoped to have the jobs phased out by the end of the summer.
Talks on the restructuring programme have been on going for the past two years. Due to the slow progress of the talks a business plan for the airport that would eventually lead to Shannon Airport's becoming an independent entity has still to be finalised.
Meanwhile, the Shannon branch of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has held what it called crisis talks with the Shannon Regional Tourism Authority and other key tourism interests in the region.
It said the ending of some key air routes following the open skies deal between the EU and US was having 'grave effects'.
The IHF is calling on the Government to immediately make available the €53m plan promised to Shannon under the new open skies agreement to promote the region.
'The decision of US Airlines and Air Canada to depart from Shannon and fly to Dublin Airport instead has resulted in the loss of some €600,000 in hotel and guesthouse bookings in the Shannon region,' the IHF said.
