{"id":274837,"date":"2026-01-08T22:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274837\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:13:09","slug":"aer-lingus-poised-to-close-manchester-base-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274837\/","title":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus poised to close Manchester base \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aer Lingus<\/a> is poised to close its Manchester Airport base where it employs about 200 people providing transatlantic flights.<\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s UK subsidiary flies to Barbados and US destinations from the British airport and has been in talks with unions and staff on the future of the business there since late last year.<\/p>\n

Aer Lingus will begin consulting with staff on \u201cmitigating job losses which would occur in the event of a base closure\u201d in coming days, it said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A statement also confirmed that it would stop selling tickets for flights between Manchester and New York, Orlando in Florida, and Barbados from March 31st next to minimise customer disruption.<\/p>\n

The airline has not confirmed that the base will be closed but sources point out that staff talks and the decision to cease selling long-haul flights mean closure is likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile consideration of proposals for avoiding and\/or reducing redundancies will continue, it is important to also address contingencies in the event that the base closes,\u201d said a statement.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Manchester fails to live up to Aer Lingus expectationsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

None of those developments will hit either Aer Lingus or Aer Lingus Regional services between Ireland and Manchester, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Aer Lingus\u2019s Manchester base is profitable, but margins are far below those of the rest of its business, the airline told staff on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe airline has explored various options for increasing the margin at the Manchester base, but unfortunately to date these options do not appear to be viable,\u201d said an internal message.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ireland\u2019s record tax take makes light of Trump tariffs fear<\/p>\n

Staff could have the option of working elsewhere within Aer Lingus, or its parent group, IAG<\/a>, which also owns Iberia and British Airways, or taking redundancy, the memo indicated.<\/p>\n

Aer Lingus pledged to comply with UK law and any collective agreements at the Manchester base.<\/p>\n

The news follows weeks of industrial strife at Aer Lingus UK\u2019s Manchester base.<\/p>\n

Cabin crew, members of Unite<\/a> trade union, went on strike for several days in October and November in a dispute over pay, hitting thousands of travellers.<\/p>\n

Aer Lingus also clashed with the Irish Airline Pilots\u2019 Association <\/a>(Ialpa) over the suspension of a captain based at the British airport.<\/p>\n

The pilots\u2019 union said Thursday\u2019s decision to cease transatlantic ticket sales created uncertainty for members at Aer Lingus UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIalpa will be working closely with Aer Lingus management to find solutions and options to mitigate any potential redundancies in the Manchester base,\u201d the union said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus is poised to close its Manchester Airport base where it employs about 200 people providing transatlantic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2442,79,18,19,17,100291,11799],"class_list":{"0":"post-274837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-irish-air-line-pilots-association","14":"tag-unite"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115861782782906905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}