The Taoiseach said today he would do his utmost, in conjunction with unions and management, to secure a future for Aer Lingus.
But he admitted the airline was in a precarious financial position and was losing around £2 million per day.
"We are trying as best we can to grapple with this serious situation," Mr Bertie Ahern said at the Institution of Engineers of Ireland conference in Killarney.
"There are also difficulties at EU level in trying to support airlines but this country has to deal with the Aer Lingus crisis.
"The Government will be working with the board and the unions together to work out a viable plan to save the company," he said.
Transatlantic bookings with Aer Lingus are now down 80 per cent on the same period last year. The company expects to make losses of £70 million in 2001, rising to £100 million in 2002.
SIPTU claimed today that the European Union must eventually be forced to allow the Government to help Aer Lingus.
The union said it was "inevitable" there would be a U-turn on the policy of not granting state aid to airline companies, otherwise "the only airlines left flying will be the American airlines".
"It is an extremely difficult situation but the Government can take steps to minimise the damage done to Aer Lingus," SIPTU spokesman on airlines Mr Noel Dowling said.