Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton cashed in close to €900,000 worth of shares in the Irish carrier’s owner, International Airlines Group (IAG), at the end of May, figures show.
The airline is seeking to cut up to 500 jobs from a workforce of 6,500 to aid it in tackling rising costs and increased competition in key parts of its business.
Company filings show Embleton cashed in £775,005 (€895,000) worth of IAG shares on May 28th last, within weeks of the group published financial results.
Embleton receives share options in IAG as part of her pay, a common practice for rewarding executives in stock market-quoted companies.
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Strict rules govern when executives with such deals can cash in share options or transact in company stock as they have access to information on the business that can affect its shares’ value.
The companies must also give details of these transactions to stock markets, which publish them.
Several other IAG executives also cashed in options around the same time as Embleton, the filings show. The Spanish-registered group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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IAG published financial results almost three weeks earlier showing that Aer Lingus had lost €103 million in the three months to the end of March 31st.
Share options cashed in by the airline’s chief would have been awarded to her before that three-month period. Aer Lingus earned €282 million profit last year. The airline did not comment.
Embleton confirmed in May that the airline was reviewing costs. That exercise preceded this week’s announcement that the airline could cut up to 70 pilots, 140 cabin crew and 290 head office staff.
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Aer Lingus is preparing to enter talks with unions including Fórsa and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association on the proposals.
Both unions represent workers in the areas that Aer Lingus is targeting for job cuts.
They argue that such reductions should only be a last resort and warn against compulsory redundancy.
The airline says talks with workers will focus on minimising redundancies where possible.
Aer Lingus is profitable but says it needs to cut costs to bring margins from its business into line with targets set by IAG to guarantee future investment from its parent.
The airline’s losses in the first three months of this year included once-off extra costs for the closure of its Manchester base.
They also reflected the fact the period covered the weakest three months of the year for air travel.
Figures for the first half, due next month, will show any impact of higher fuel bills on all IAG’s airlines, which include British Airways and Spain’s Iberia.
Aer Lingus maintains that its business has become increasingly seasonal, with a high proportion of its revenues and profits coming between March and September.
