The chairman of FLS Industries, owner of the former TEAM Aer Lingus, has resigned following the decision of the group's largest shareholder to sell its stake.

FLS said in December that Mr Ib Christensen would leave in April, but the group said in a statement to the Copenhagen stock exchange that it wanted to speed up the process. His departure follows the resignation last month of Mr Stephen Henderson, who was chief executive of the group's aircraft maintenance division.

FLS employs 1,600 at Dublin Airport but is seeking to cut this number by 200 due to the aviation crisis that followed the attacks of September 11th. It wants to reach a severance agreement with trade unions before the end of March.

FLS has yet to conclude a formal agreement with US helicopter firm Sikorsky, which promised to place aircraft conversion work with FLS in return for a lucrative Department of Defence contract won last month.

Such an arrangement is expected to secure 50 jobs at the troubled plant, which is only marginally profitable.

Mr Christensen is linked to Potagua, the company which owns 46 per cent of FLS but controls 60 per cent of the votes on its board.

Potagua wants to exit the business, although hopes of a speedy sale are slim.

Such is the poor state of the business that FLS believes a sale might take up to five years to complete. Three other board members linked to Potagua are expected to leave in March.