Two vacancies have emerged on the board of Aer Lingus following the resignation of the former Fianna Fail TD and Minister for Justice, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and the completion of a five-year appointment by Davy Stockbrokers' chief economist, Mr Jim O'Leary. Ms Geoghegan-Quinn will join the European Court of Auditors as its Irish member on March 1st. The vacancies are unlikely to be filled for some time as the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, is to seek the views of her corporate advisers on the board's make-up in advance of the airline's flotation.

Initial meetings between the airline, officials from the Department of Public Enterprise and the Government's corporate advisers, AIB Capital Markets and Saloman Smith Barney, took place this week.

"No decision has been taken in relation to appointments or reappointments to the board," said a Department of Public Enterprise spokesman. "As the airline is heading for a flotation, the Minister [Ms O'Rourke] will take advice from her corporate advisers on the future composition of the board."

Ms O'Rourke is expected to change the board's membership to give it access to people with greater private-sector and airline experience. Similar changes were made to the board of Eircom, then Telecom Eireann, before it was floated last year.

Meanwhile, a subcommittee of Aer Lingus's board of directors is to approach recruitment specialists for tenders to advise it on the replacement of Mr Garry Cullen, who resigned as the airline's chief executive two weeks ago.

The subcommittee is chaired by the airline's chairman, Mr Bernie Cahill. Its other members are Mr Paddy Wright, a former president and chief operations manager of Smurfit Group and Mr Des Richardson, a director of the Marlborough recruitment group and wellknown Fianna Fail fundraiser.

Mr Cullen resigned unexpectedly, stating that he did not see a role for himself, given the workload involved in pursuing the flotation of the airline. Trade union activists had expressed doubts about his ability to push through the changes needed at the airline for a public offering of stock.

The subcommittee and its advisers are expected to look within and outside the airline industry to replace Mr Cullen and it will also look outside the State. The airline is expected to be able to offer the new chief executive a salary in excess of £200,000, more than twice that of Mr Cullen.

Mr Cahill has stated that he wants to see Aer Lingus floated "as soon as practicable", although few observers expect a stock market launch before next autumn.

While the board regards the replacement of Mr Cullen as "a matter of urgency", it will also be aware that it took five months to replace Mr Cullen's predecessor, Mr Gary McGann, when he left to join the Smurfit group in 1998.

Ms Geoghegan-Quinn has also resigned from the board of the Ryan Hotel group.