Aer Lingus has said it will re-route passengers who have booked flights on two routes operated on a code-share basis with British Airways, after the UK carrier announced it was cutting the services in a drive to trim overheads.
Passengers due to travel from Dublin to Newcastle and Leeds-Bradford will be accommodated on Aer Lingus flights to Manchester and Edinburgh when BA terminates the routes in early March. Customers who do not wish to be re-routed will be offered refunds.
The decision by BA to cut 21 routes - including daily connections between Dublin and Southampton and between Belfast and Cardiff, Aberdeen and the Isle of Man - will have no further impact an Aer Lingus, a spokeswoman said. It was unlikely that it would step in and launch its own services on defunct routes.
BA said the move would lead to job losses but would not say where the redundancies would be implemented. It operates 50 weekly flights from Dublin to destinations in Britain and Europe.
The company said it wanted to accelerate efficiencies and concentrate on key markets. It also plans to phase out propeller-driven aircraft from regional routes.
Ryanair seized on the announcement to introduce a daily Newcastle to Dublin service from January. The carrier's monthly customer service statistics reveal it received 849 general complaints in November representing 0.68 per 1,000 passengers and 961 luggage complaints, 0.77 per 1,000 passengers.
