AER LINGUS director Leslie Buckley has bought 65,000 shares in the airline at a cost of €50,700. The shares were bought on Tuesday at 78 cent each. Mr Buckley, who is a close business associate of Denis O’Brien, informed the stock market of the share purchase yesterday.

This is the first time the Cork-born businessman has bought shares in Aer Lingus. Shares in the airline closed down 3.3 per cent in Dublin yesterday at 73.5 cent.

Mr Buckley, who is a Government nominee on the board of the airline, is the latest director or senior executive with Aer Lingus to purchase stock in the airline in recent weeks.

Its recently-appointed chief executive, German-born Christoph Mueller, last week spent €27,750 buying 50,000 shares at 55.5 cent each. These were the first shares he has bought in the airline since taking the controls of the company.

Seán Coyle, Aer Lingus’s finance chief, also declared that he spent €10,800 buying 18,000 shares at 60 cent each.

Mr Coyle, a former Ryanair executive, also holds 589,206 share options in the former State-owned airline.

Aer Lingus is expected to announce a comprehensive cost-reduction programme in the second half of October. This is aimed at reducing its costs by €130 million and reducing its workforce by up to 500 staff.