Some Aer Lingus temporary staff may be laid off as early as next week in an attempt to stem the financial haemorrhage the company is suffering.

Its 45 trainee pilots are also facing immediate redundancy. Sources within Aer Lingus said yesterday it would run out of cash by January if the present gap between plummeting revenue and high costs is not bridged quickly.

The company's director of corporate affairs, Mr Dan Loughrey, said the nature of the crisis facing Aer Lingus was unprecedented. "This is not a hump we have to get over, this is a crisis of totally unprecedented proportions for the industry." He held out little hope for temporary staff.

"Over the coming weeks we will have to scale down very significantly on operations and, to get the benefits from that scale-down we have to reduce costs. We could be issuing seven days' notices to some temporary staff within a week."

Besides grounding four planes Aer Lingus will obtain some temporary relief by returning two leased aircraft on "lease breaks" and will try to sell another. However, Mr Loughrey said it might not be possible to sell in the current climate. He also predicted that unless there was a recovery in bookings further reductions in routes or flight schedules were possible in addition to those announced on Tuesday.

Today, SIPTU officials are meeting with branch officers and shop stewards from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to discuss the situation. Union president Mr Des Geraghty said he would be raising the issue of state aid for Aer Lingus at national and EU level.

Initially, union leaders and workers will be pinning their hopes on tomorrow's summit of EU leaders in Brussels to discuss the implications of last week's air attacks in the US. According to senior Government sources the question of financial aid for ailing European airlines will be on the agenda.

"If ever there was a test of social partnership it is around the current crisis," Mr Geraghty said. "It is not only Aer Lingus that is affected, it just happens to be the company in the front line."

When IMPACT representatives met the company yesterday they were told that 45 trainee pilots are being laid off, even those near completion of their 18 months' training. They were told the company did not foresee a need for extra pilots before the summer of 2003 at the earliest. IMPACT assistant general secretary Mr Michael Landers said the union would be seeking some interim arrangement for these pilots, most of whom had left secure jobs elsewhere to train with Aer Lingus.

He also said IMPACT would be asking the company to examine options such as career breaks, early retirement and job sharing to help meet the immediate crisis. Although he had been sceptical of the seriousness of the crisis at the beginning of the week, Mr Landers said last night that, "if the figures on bookings are as bad as is now feared then the company is facing a bigger crisis than in the Cahill Plan years".

The Central Representative Council of Aer Lingus, which contains union and management representatives, has been invited to meet Minister for Public Enterprise Ms O'Rourke on Monday to discuss the situation in the light of tomorrow's Brussels summit.

Meanwhile, SIPTU vice-president Mr Jack O'Connor has called on the Government to set up a high-level group to avert future job losses. He said the Tβnaiste Ms Harney should also intervene directly with the management of Shinko Microelectronics in Tallaght to save the plant. In companies such as Aer Lingus and Shinko he said some families were in danger of losing two incomes because both partners were working for the same employer.