Mr. Neil McGowan:

All the decisions Aer Lingus made were based purely on commercial considerations. That was apparent in the way it has treated staff right across Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports. It was across all grades too. Nobody has been left unscathed by this.

If Shannon Airport was in a position that it was growing at the rate that Cork Airport was growing, prior to Covid, those commercial decisions would have been a bit more difficult for the airline to make. The Shannon routes would have been in a position where they were more profitable and Aer Lingus would have been more inclined to take a punt on keeping them open for longer during the Covid crisis.