One hundred and two cabin crew jobs are to go at Shannon as Aer Lingus dramatically slims its operation there.

The job cuts were announced to staff there last night by the airline's chief executive Christoph Mueller and other managers.

The slim down will reduce the number of cabin crew based at the airport by 75pc.

In addition, the company said 75 ground operation posts would face reduced hours at Shannon.

Union sources there said last night that the changes would mean the end of transatlantic jets being based at the airport.

They said that from the start of next year Shannon would become a stopover on routes from Dublin.

They said that there were likely to be just four weekly flights to Boston and three to New York.

The sources said that 34 remaining cabin crew would work on the three times a day Shannon - Heathrow service, which is the airline's only other remaining route out of the airport.

After the meeting with staff, the Aer Lingus corporate affairs director Enda Corneille said that 70 pc of the airline's 93m euro loss for the first six months of the year was on long-haul.

He said none of its transatlantic routes were profitable.

It was now a question, he said, of providing a future for Aer Lingus as a whole and not just Shannon.

Overall the airline is seeking to slim its workforce by 676 and save 97m euro.

Mr Corneille admitted that the proposed cutbacks had been "overwhelming" for staff.

Management had also briefed staff in Cork before going to Shannon.

Earlier, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary had called on the government to explain why it did not accept his airline's takeover offer for Aer Lingus.

Speaking on RTE Radio, Mr O'Leary said that if the government had accepted Ryanair's offer, it would have doubled the size of Aer Lingus' fleet and create at least 1,000 new jobs.

(Bizworld)