In a new bid to save over €97 million in costs, Aer Lingus has announced that it will make compulsory redundancies among its cabin crew. The carrier said that it expects that there will be approximately 230 less cabin crew in the organization. All remaining cabin crew employees will be on a new contract and employment.

Under these new plans, the remaining cabin crew will see a transition to a new pay scale, which will included reduced salaries. There will also be new working conditions to achieve increased productivity.

Five different union groups were balloted on the Aer Lingus cost reduction program. Four of these agreed to the proposal. However, the cabin crew members of the union IMPACT rejected the plans. Despite this, Aer Lingus held a board meeting just the other day, in which bosses formally approved the steps that it will take to achieve the required savings.

A 30 day consultation period will follow this meeting, as required by law. Aer Lingus also has to notify the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment of this decision as well. For pilots, Aer Lingus planned cost reductions that will mean a 15 percent pay cut. The number of pilots at the carrier will also be reduced by 15 percent.

Aer Lingus also announced that its operating loss for 2009 was €81 million. Ticket prices fell by 16.8 percent when compared to a year earlier. It is the hope of the airline that these new cost saving measures will be enough to save the company. However, it is not yet known just how much the company will be able to save overall.