The Aer Lingus board will have some limited grounds for optimism when it meets to discuss the crisis at the airline today. The signals emanating from Luxembourg and Brussels yesterday were conflicting. Ms Loyola de Palacio, the transport commissioner, is taking a firm stance, in public at least, against any further aid for the airline over and above what was proposed on Tuesday. Commission officials were separately briefing that Brussels is minded to help Ireland. But they have stressed that any state aid must be part of a fundamental restructuring. The state guaranteed loans that have been mooted must be on commercial terms. Brussels also wants to see the Aer Lingus unions fully signed up to any deal that is laid before it.
The positive noises that are emanating from Commission sources are better than nothing but are still a long way from the certainty that Aer Lingus seeks. It will be up to the Aer Lingus board to decide today if they constitute sufficient grounds for it to proceed with the restructuring. Hopefully they will have the courage to persevere. A rescue of Aer Lingus is still possible but progress will have to be made quickly and on several fronts. Yesterday's news should allow talks between Aer Lingus management and unions to commence. The unions have indicated that it would have been difficult for them to enter into meaningful talks unless there was going to be money available from the Government or another source to pay relatively generous redundancies.
Time is not on the company's side and these talks must move apace. There is no room for time consuming diversions such as trips to the Labour Court. Aer Lingus management have made no effort to play down the extent of the airline's problems. Some have questioned if the situation is as grave as it has been portrayed. Such questions are now largely academic. A tough restructuring plan has been drawn up on the basis of the most pessimistic scenario and it is the only one on the table. So far the management of Aer Lingus have done their part. The Government has backed them and the Commission has left the door ajar on state aid. The spotlight now falls on the unions and whether they can sign up to the plan and at what cost.