Irish state airline, Aer Lingus has announced that it will lay off 230 staff from its cabin crew under a new cost cutting plan. The government has a stake of 25 per cent in the airline which is planning to restructure it operations.

The move comes after the cabin crew rejected a plan which aimed at saving €97million in cost cutting measures. The new plan includes new pay levels and working conditions. The chief executive of the airline, Christoph Mueller indicated that the new plan will be hard on its cabin crew.

He further said that the airline would implement the plan for union groups all of which are believed to have agreed to the proposal. The plan includes 600 voluntary redundancies along with a 10% cut in salaries for all.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been informed about the proposed lay off, according to Mr. Mueller. He added that a 30-day notice had been served.

The airline will implement its restructuring plans soon. The Impact trade union's cabin crew branch is to meet the management to discuss the proposed plans. The airline employs a total of 1,000 cabin crew presently.

The airline has reported a loss of €81million in 2009, which is four times higher than the year before. It also indicated that its revenues fell 11 per cent to €1.205 billion. The airline recorded a 3.8 per cent rise in total number of passengers to 10.4 million.

Aer Lingus had warned earlier that it would have to implement a plan to lay off as many as 1,100 employees if the restructuring plan which was reached after a long time of negotiations, was rejected. The Airline has shunned away a takeover bid by rival Ryanair in the past.

The employees of the airline and Ryan Air along with the Irish government share about 70 per cent stake between them.