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Aer Lingus pension fund proposals

Tuesday, October 09 08:43:36

Aer Lingus has said that if the E748m deficit in its pension scheme is not addressed, members who have not yet retired could receive as little as 4pc of the pensions they expected. SIPTU called off a threatened strike at Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority over a week ago. This was to allow talks on the deficit in their joint pension scheme known as the Irish Aviation Superannuation Scheme (IASS) to continue.

Last week, unions claimed that Aer Lingus would have to contribute up to E200m, and the DAA would have to pay out E130m to resolve the deficit. In an announcement to the stock exchange yesterday evening, Aer Lingus outlined its proposals to address the deficit. It proposed freezing the current IASS scheme - and reducing risk by investing in bonds whose cash flows "broadly match" the IASS obligations. It claimed this approach would deliver higher pensions than on a wind-up of the IASS, but would be at the sole discretion of the scheme's Trustees.