Ireland’s flagship airline Aer Lingus announced on Sunday that it doesn’t plan to cull its long haul services as part of plans to reverse increasing losses.
A newspaper report said senior management believed cutting back routes to the US was a possibility in the medium term, however an airline spokesman said the former state carrier would remain in the sector.
“We’re not getting out of long-haul but we have to make long-haul work,” the spokesman said.
The report also said the airline was contemplating shifting its focus away from major European hubs and moving towards using “secondary” airports, a key strategy for major competitor Ryanair in order reduce costs.
“That has yet to be decided,” the Aer Lingus spokesman said in response, without elaborating.
The article in The Sunday Tribune says plans were being considered by management would still include keeping routes from London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, but move out of other expensive airports in smaller cities.
Aer Lingus recorded a first-half operating loss last Thursday and said that no bank was prepared to lend the money for the airline to order new aircraft because of its cash burn rate, pledging a massive cost-cutting scheme to make the business profitable again.
