Aer Lingus and Siptu have agreed to hold a series of meetings at a local level where management can "flesh out" its restructuring proposals to shop stewards and officials. These meetings will take place with staff in Dublin, Cork and Shannon and with various sections of the airline at those airports.

These meetings are a follow-up to the recommendations issued by the Labour Court recently in a bid to break the deadlock over the airline's plan to introduce new terms and conditions for existing staff.

A high-level meeting between both sides has been pencilled in for March 21st to review the progress made at local level.

The Labour Court recently recommended that negotiations should take place over four weeks, with the matter to be referred back to the court in the absence of a successful conclusion to the talks.

Staff face having their holiday leave entitlements cut with changes to days off in lieu and other work practices also recommended. The Labour Court said staff should be compensated for a reduction in their leave or pay.

Figures published by Aer Lingus yesterday show that it carried 616,000 passengers in February, up 7.3 per cent on the same month of 2005. The number of seats filled per aircraft, however, declined from 72 per cent to 71.9 per cent over the same period.

The number of long-haul passengers fell by 4.2 per cent to 68,000, while the number of short-haul trips made with the airline was up by 8.9 per cent to 548,000.

In the year to date, Aer Lingus has carried 1.2 million passengers, up 4.8 per cent on 2005.

Separately, Dublin Airport Authority said yesterday that 328,000 more passengers used the facility in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period of 2005. More than 1.5 million passengers passed through Dublin airport in February alone, up 14 per cent on the same month of last year.