Employers' group Ibec has said that up to 20 major companies in the mid-west have warned that the decision by Aer Lingus to end its Shannon-Heathrow route would have a significant impact on their future viability.
Following a meeting yesterday, the companies have commissioned a report on the economic implications of the ending of the Heathrow service, scheduled to take effect from next January.
Ibec said that the report would be completed within days and that it would then be seeking a meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. It is understood that many of the companies argued that Mr Ahern should now intervene. Ibec said that the companies believed that the Aer Lingus move would also seriously undermine future investment plans.
Two companies in Shannon, Element Six, which employs 600 people and computer company Avocent, with 160 workers, have already publicly stated that the ending of the route would damage their businesses.
Separately Shannon Development has called an emergency meeting of business, tourism and community leaders in the mid-west for tomorrow to agree a response to the ending of the Shannon to Heathrow service.
The Government, meanwhile, has given no indication that it intends to heed calls by the Opposition for it to use its 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus to block the move.
A Government spokesman said: "It is very unfortunate for the mid-west region, but this is a commercial decision for Aer Lingus."
Ryanair said yesterday that it had been "fobbed off" by the Taoiseach's office on foot of its proposal that it and the Government should join forces to try have the Aer Lingus plan reversed. Ryanair also owns 25 per cent of Aer Lingus and its deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said that management in any company would have to take notice if shareholders owning more than half of the stock disagreed with a fundamental shift in policy.
He was confident that if the Government and Ryanair worked together, a mechanism could be found to influence management.
He said that an extraordinary general meeting could possibly be one such mechanism. Fine Gael yesterday said that the Government should use powers under the airline's articles of association to call an extraordinary meeting of the board of Aer Lingus over the Shannon proposals.
However, Aer Lingus sources maintained that the article related to any disposal of landing slots at Heathrow rather than moves to vary their use.
