AER Arann will employ 20 staff at a new business base in Galway Airport. The company says the new posts will include 11 cabin crew, six first officers and three engineers who will be taken on by the end of next month, writes Lorna Siggins in Galway.

Another 18 staff will be moved to Galway, including nine co-pilots and nine cabin crew, while three aircraft will be dedicated to the airport.

The regional airline says the aircraft and staff will service 95 flights a week in and out of Galway Airport on four routes including Dublin, London Luton, Edinburgh and Manchester. A fifth route to Birmingham is due to start in May. It expects that passenger levels through Galway will grow to over 260,000 this year.

The new base will supplement the airline's headquarters at Dublin Airport, and will complement its base in Cork, a spokesman said.

The deal comes only months after the managing director of Aer Arann, Mr Padraig Ó Céidigh, called on Galway Airport management to resign over the handling of negotiations on a new Scottish link.

The airport management was in discussions late last year with Air Wales and Aer Arann on the new route, and appeared to have finalised a deal with Air Wales on a direct link between Galway and Glasgow when a row erupted.

The Welsh carrier pulled out a week after the new route had been announced. Negotiations were re-opened with Aer Arann, and a new Galway-Edinburgh route was initiated just before Christmas.

Aer Arann employs 270 staff and has a turnover of over €80 million. It runs over 400 flights a week and carried 600,000 passengers last year.