Aer Lingus chairman, Mr Bernie Cahill, has taken over the running of the airline pending the appointment of a new chief executive to replace Mr Gary McGann who left yesterday, a day after it was announced he planned to become chief financial officer of the Jefferson Smurfit Group. It also emerged that Smurfit president and chief operations officer, Mr Paddy Wright, who is a director of Aer Lingus, offered to resign from the airline board because of sensitivity over Mr McGann's appointment to Smurfit.