It now seems that Aer Lingus has made a threat to shift its operations from Dublin to Gatwick and Belfast. This news came just after the talks to cut pilots’ wages finally broke down. This move would see hundreds of further compulsory redundancies as the carrier fights to save money.

The new chief executive at Aer Lingus, Christoph Mueller, said that the 676 job cuts that were announced in October will now reach more than 1,000. The new chief executive blamed this increase on the Irish Air Line Pilots Association’s failure to reach an agreement on cuts. He said that the cabin crew’s refusal to accept wage cuts also played a role in the extra job cuts.

Christoph Mueller said that he blames the breakdown in talks on the union for insisting on only temporary wage cuts for a few short years. He also noted that they wanted very high compensation for the wage cuts later on.

After this the airline did say that it had applied for a UK Air Operator’s Certificate. This would allow the company to operate from Gatwick and Belfast. The corporate affairs director at Aer Lingus, Enda Corneille, said that they are going through the process with the Civil Aviation Authority. This will give the airline the opportunity to move their aircrafts to the UK and fly from there. This would mean that Dublin would become a place to fly to rather than fly from.

He also went on to note that this shift would allow pilots’ contracts to be changed in line with the terms under which its Gatwick-based pilots are already operating on. He did admit that this would take some months to do, however.