Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion has said the airline is not planning to discuss its controversial plans to withdraw from the Shannon-Heathrow route with shareholders in the company.
He said the decision had been taken by the executive management although the board had been informed in recent weeks.
In an interview with RTÉ's This Week programme yesterday, Mr Mannion said it would not be appropriate to have a discussion with other shareholders on the issue at this time.
Groups in the midwest and west campaigning against the ending of the Heathrow service have called for a special meeting of Aer Lingus to be convened to allow shareholders to voice their opposition.
Ryanair, which owns 25 per cent of Aer Lingus, has publicly opposed the Shannon decision.
Mr Mannion said the board had been informed in advance of the decision to end the Shannon service to allow for the development of new routes from Belfast.
However, he said he did not consider it a relevant question as to when exactly the board had been informed. "As chief executive officer, I take responsibility for the executive decision taken," he said.
Mr Mannion said Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey had been briefed on the plan on Friday week last "in his capacity as regulator of the transport network".
He said that while the Government owned 25 per cent of the airline, as a publicly-quoted company there were restrictions on its ability to give information to one shareholder that was not available to another.
He said the decision to inform Mr Dempsey on Friday week last was taken partly in the knowledge of possible leaks of the plan over the weekend.
Mr Mannion said that in deciding to withdraw from the Shannon route, management had "an obligation to offer a balanced approach to get the right commercial return for Aer Lingus".
He acknowledged that Aer Lingus had leased out some of its "slots" or landing rights at Heathrow. He said that one slot had been leased for a year and another for three years.
However, Mr Mannion said the company had evaluated the manner in which it was using the Heathrow slots including those leased out and that this "had been in the background to this decision [ to end the Shannon service]".
The Aer Lingus chief indicated that the airline had not received any sweetheart deal from the authorities in Northern Ireland.
"There is a natural market between Aldergrove [ in Belfast] and Heathrow which has not been supplied for many years. I believe we are the natural airline of choice," he said.
He said the company expected all the routes from Belfast to be profitable in the first year of operation. Asked whether staff costs in Belfast would be cheaper than at Shannon, Mr Mannion said rates of pay would not necessarily be lower.
He added: "Our overall assessment is that we are making and will continue to make a very positive contribution to the Shannon economy through the long-haul operation that we are committed to for winter 2007".
