AER LINGUS is once again working on a contingency plan involving more than 1,100 compulsory redundancies and a major scaling back of routes in the event that staff reject a ballot on the restructuring deal that was agreed with unions recently and is aimed at saving €97 million a year.

Senior managers at the airline were briefed by executives about this plan on Monday evening. The meeting involved Aer Lingus human resources director Michael Grealy, its head of corporate affairs Enda Corneille and interim finance chief Andrew Macfarlane.

Aer Lingus is also considering moving some or all of its head office operations to Hangar 6 at Dublin Airport. The maintenance hangar, which was occupied by SR Technics until last year, has considerable office space.

Under the plan senior management would move to office space off the airport campus but near by.

Mr Corneille said the matter was under review but no decision has been made. If Aer Lingus were to move, its existing headquarters at the airport would revert to the Dublin Airport Authority who it leases the building from.

Hangar 6 has been the subject of much controversy in the last two weeks with Ryanair insisting it could create 300 jobs there if the DAA broke Aer Lingus’s lease on the facility.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller, and DAA chief executive Declan Collier are to appear before the Oireachtas Transport Committee this afternoon to discuss Hangar 6.

It is understood that Aer Lingus’ senior executive team have become concerned in recent days that staff at the airline are set to reject the package of cost-cutting measures that was agreed last month with unions following several months of negotiations.

This is in spite of the unions representing staff recommending the restructuring package, which includes more than 600 voluntary redundancies and pay cuts of 10 per cent across the board.

Pilots at the airline have already begun balloting, while ballots of cabin crew, ground staff and other employees were expected to begin this week.

Union representatives were not available for comment last night.

But this move by the company is likely to provoke anger among staff and their representatives.

Sources indicated that the airline would press ahead with the compulsory redundancies in the event of staff rejecting the cost-cutting measure contained in its so-called Project Greenfield plan.