Aer Lingus is 'suffering badly' due to the pandemic, amid warnings of lay-offs and a pay freeze at the carrier.
That's according to aviation journalist Gerry Bryne, who was speaking after the airline announced it had begun an immediate review of terms and conditions of cabin crew and crew bases.
Earlier this week, Aer Lingus cabin crew members voted to reject a restructuring deal.
Then on Thursday, the company sent a letter to cabin staff warning that it was pressing ahead with the changes.
The voluntary redundancy scheme for cabin crew staff has ceased, and there will be a requirement for temporary lay-offs for more than 100 cabin service managers.
While the letter also warned they will not receive any pay increases until at least 2025.
Gerry Bryne told Newstalk Breakfast they are also looking to cut pay for new entrants.
"The airline indeed has threatened to force through, not just the pay deal, but also job cuts.
"As they say they've got too many inflight managers and they want to reduce the level of those.
"They also want to reduce pay for incoming cabin crew - in other words, when new cabin crew join the airline in the future.
"This has been overwhelmingly very, very high percentage against - 82% - which is quite a turnaround for the airline".
And he says the Irish flag carrier has been losing money along with all other airlines.
"Aer Lingus, like all other airlines, is suffering badly to be fair about this.
"They haven't been flying much, they've still got to keep their aircraft in flying condition - and so the maintainence on keeping a plane in flying condition is actually quite high.
"The other things that they have to look after of course are the staff, the pilots... that the pilots are well-trained.
"Pilots that can't fly have to go back into the simulator and practice their flying to keep them up to speed.
"So it's an intensive business; you don't just sort of wrap a ribbon around an airline and walk away from it for a few months.
"They have said, incidentally, also they've lost €500m in the past year".
