Interest from individual investors surges in recent days in run-up to today's deadline

Trade union support for Aer Lingus's new business plan was secured last night after an eleventh-hour hitch involving some members of Siptu was overcome.

Talks at Shannon airport with workers who were threatening to place Siptu's support for the plan in jeopardy ended in agreement at around 8.30pm.

Meanwhile interest in the airline's flotation among individual investors has surged in recent days. Today is the deadline for individual investors and orders for the airline's shares, running into millions of euro, have been committed. Eight stockbroking firms are handling the orders from individual investors. Only people prepared to invest a minimum of €10,000 can participate.

With the flotation of the airline scheduled for early next month, management was under pressure to sign off on the business plan which has been negotiated over the past two years.

It offers workers a 4 per cent pay increase in return for co-operating with major change in the company.

Trade union support for the plan seemed assured last month when Siptu recommended its acceptance, on the basis of a Labour Court recommendation, to its 1,800 members in the company.

An unexpected hitch arose on Tuesday evening after ballots were counted and it emerged that Siptu members in three separate sections of the airline had rejected the plan.

Siptu's rules for the ballot required that every section must support the plan before the union could give its overall backing.

The three units within Siptu who rejected the plan were the equipment and reservations sections in Dublin, and clerical staff in the Shannon-based cargo section.

Following late-night talks on Tuesday between management and representatives of the union, the two Dublin-based sections reversed their position yesterday.

But the 14 Shannon-based workers involved continued to demand an improved deal.

It is understood they claimed their posts should be upgraded due to the increased workload imposed on them by the business plan.

Senior management representatives travelled to Shannon yesterday afternoon for a meeting with the staff concerned and their union representatives.

After several hours of talks, agreement was reached which clears the way for the airline to implement the business plan. An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said the company was pleased that agreement had been reached with all staff.