Trade unions representing staff at Aer Lingus’s Manchester base have accused the airline of “economic vandalism” in seeking to close a profitable base and showing “complete disregard” for its 200 staff at the site.

The airline is now facing the possibility of further industrial action at the English base base after it gave another indication on Thursday of its plans to close the facility.

The airline has seemed poised to close its Manchester operation for months. Its chief executive Lynne Embleton told The Irish Times in November the base’s operating margin was well below that of its Irish long-haul margin.

She said the base’s performance made it “difficult to justify” further investment, and said it raised the question as to whether there were “potentially better alternative uses” of the aircraft there.

The Irish flag carrier currently operates three long haul routes from Manchester to Barbados, Orlando and New York JFK. The company employs about 200 people providing transatlantic flights from Manchester, including almost 130 cabin crew.

While the airline has yet to confirm any closure, it has been in talks to unions and staff on the future of the base since late last year, and said on Thursday it would begin consulting with staff on “mitigating job losses which would occur in the event of a base closure”.

It also confirmed it would stop selling tickets for flights between Manchester and New York, Orlando in Florida, and Barbados from March 31st to minimise customer disruption.

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Unite, the union representing workers in the civil air transport industry, said the latest move has left workers with “no clarity on the future of their jobs”.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a profitable base and Aer Lingus’s plans to close it amounts to simple economic vandalism, while showing a complete disregard for its loyal workforce.”

Unite said it has “constantly attempted to engage” with the airline since the plans were mooted in November, requesting information including the “full business rationale” and “Manchester-specific financials”, which it said it has not received.

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“The union has made it very clear to Aer Lingus that if it is talking seriously about the possibility of closure, it must be prepared to give Unite this information as well as a proper timeline and details of what ending routes at the base will mean for workers,” Unite said.

The union said it would ballot members on taking industrial action over the proposals, with the ballot to close on January 26th. Strikes could begin in late February, it added.

Unite said previous strike action last year by Aer Lingus cabin crew over pay caused disruption to flights with delays and hundreds of passengers being flown to Dublin for connecting flights to the US and Barbados.

The airline previously insisted disruption from the industrial action was kept to a minimum.

Unite regional officer John O’Neill said: “Unite has made it very clear to Aer Lingus that if it is talking about the possibility of closure it must give us proper information, rather than hiding from us.

“No stone must be left unturned in pursuing all options in keeping the base operational and preserving jobs. Unite will not back down from this crisis without a fight and we are confident a strong ballot result will show this.”

Aer Lingus said it had no further comment on Friday.

The airline’s third-quarter results published in November showed operating profit jumped by 22 per cent to €170 million.

The performance represented a €31 million improvement on the year before, which it said was driven by “solid revenue performance” and favourable fuel pricing. The result was adjusted to take account of impact of industrial action in 2024.