Union representatives are meeting Aer Lingus this afternoon in an attempt to hammer out an agreement over the airline's cost cutting plan.
The meeting comes after Aer Lingus warned yesterday that more than 1,000 workers could be made redundant over the coming months following failure to reach a deal with unions to cut €97 million from costs by 2011.
Chief executive Christoph Mueller said board had agreed a strategy at a meeting yesterday that included grounding aircraft in the new year and closing loss-making routes. The board will meet again on Friday to decide the scale of the cuts.
Mr Mueller said the two sides had "narrowed the gap" on achieving sustainable savings, that brought the airline "very close to signature".
"The exception to this promising outcome is the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) and to a lesser extent, cabin crew. Instead of sustainable savings of a structural nature, only temporary savings over a short few years were offered by IALPA. Aer Lingus was asked for very high compensation in return," Mr Mueller said in a statement this morning.
Speaking this morning on RTÉ Radio, Impact's assistant general secretary Christina Carney said the union believed that for cabin crew, its proposals had reached targets set for reducing costs.
Commenting on reports that pilots had sought a 4 per cent stake in the company in return for agreeing to management proposals, Ms Carney said the principal of investment should be rewarded.
"If the cabin crew, pilots or anyone else is investing in the airline by contributing money in terms of pay cuts or productivity, I think there should be recognition for that investment," she said.
However, she added that no figures had yet been agreed as to how the contributions would be recognised.
The pilots already own about 4.5 per cent of Aer Lingus.
Shares in Aer Lingus were up 2.4 per cent to just over 54 cent on the Dublin market this afternoon.