Aer Lingus makes Belfast cutbacks

Aer Lingus has been hit hard by the downturn in global travel

Irish airline Aer Lingus is cutting flights out of Belfast and Dublin this winter to combat the economic downturn and a fall in passengers.

It is removing one of three planes operating out of Belfast International Airport for four months until the beginning of March 2010.

Flights to Paris, Rome, Milan, Faro and Barcelona will be suspended for the winter.

But the airline said it had no plans to cut back on 100 jobs in Belfast.

Commercial director Enda Corneille gave a guarantee to pilots and cabin staff employed in Belfast that their jobs were safe.

"We have no plans for job cuts," he said.

"We are still committed to Northern Ireland, we still have a huge amount of confidence in the routes, in the network, in the base, but we need to cut our cloth to our means for the winter.

"At a time when customer confidence is at an all-time low and you have finite resources, you have to deploy them where they will generate the most return."

'Sun routes'

Routes will run to London Heathrow, Malaga, Munich, Lanzarote and Tenerife which is being added for next winter.

At least one aircraft is being taken out of service in Dublin, but which routes will be affected have yet to be decided, Mr Corneille said.

Mr Corneille insisted it was not all doom and gloom and the load factor on Belfast routes was 81% in April, the highest yet.

Two weeks ago, the airline warned that its 2009 losses would be more extensive than first feared after a sharp drop in first quarter revenues.

Aer Lingus, which parted with its former chief executive in April, said revenues in January to March slumped 16% from a year before.

Passenger numbers during the first quarter fell 6.5% to two million.

The news saw shares in Aer Lingus fall as much as 20%. The firm said it was continuing with cost cutting measures.

Aer Lingus' former chief executive Dermot Mannion resigned on 6 April, saying the airline needed fresh ideas.