Aircraft maintenance firm SR Technics told staff yesterday that a final decision on whether it will retain a crucial contract with Aer Lingus will not be known until next month.
There were fears for the jobs of about 1,500 staff at the plant at Dublin airport after an internal company memo, which was leaked earlier this week, warned that it could close if it lost the Aer Lingus contract for line maintenance of its fleet.
Aer Lingus put four elements of its aircraft maintenance work, which is worth some €65 million annually, out to tender last year.
SR Technics has lost out on the first two elements of this maintenance work.
However, decisions are still awaited on the contract for airframe and line maintenance, the current contracts for which expire in October.
In a memo to staff , it said that the company had emerged from the tendering process for base (airframe) maintenance as a finalist.
However, it noted that it understood that there may be one or two other parties also involved.
"Currently we are in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with Aer Lingus and we expected this to be complete today.
"We are also aware that Aer Lingus will not make a final decision until February," it stated
"While this is a good development for SR Technics, we should bear in mind that we have not yet won the business."
The latest accounts for SR Technic's Dublin operation show it made an operating loss of €1.6 million on turnover of €128 million in the year to the end of December 2006.
This compared with an operating loss of €9.4 million in 2005, due largely to the cost of restructuring the business.
