By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Aer Lingus is losing more than 1 million euros ($1.19 million) a day and does not expect the Irish government’s plan to ease travel restrictions next month will give it a significant near term bounce, its new chief executive said on Tuesday.
Ireland now has the strictest travel curbs in the European Union but will adopt the EU’s COVID-19 certificate to help citizens to move more freely across the bloc from July 19.
It will broadly apply the same approach to the key markets of Britain and the United States.
The Irish airline, which like British Airways and Iberia is owned by International Airlines Group, said last month it would close its cabin crew base at one of Ireland’s largest airports and impose cuts and layoffs across the company as part of a restructuring.
“It is looking too little too late to have a significant bounce that will get us on the right path to restoring connectivity, supporting jobs in the near term,” Lynne Embleton told an Irish parliamentary committee, citing continued curbs for unvaccinated travellers from Britain and the United States.
Embleton said the decision to close its base at Shannon Airport, one of its four main domestic hubs, did not signal a strategic retreat from Ireland’s regions. But she said she could not give assurances there would be no more job losses.
The carrier, which lost 103 million euros in the first three months of 2021, was in talks with its parent firm and Ireland’s government about potential further liquidity, she said.
It received a 150 million euro loan from Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund last year.
“From the day we stop burning cash, that’s not the end of our problems. We need to repay the debt, repay the interest, restore the balance sheet and have the money to be able to pay for aircraft,” said Embleton.
“We will be smaller for some time to come unfortunately and it will take a long time to fully recover,” she said.
($1 = 0.8406 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)
