Aer Lingus anticipates 150 net job losses as a result of a voluntary redundancy scheme - according to a letter sent to Minister for Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation, Richard Bruton.

The Aer Lingus Director of HR Operations, Brian Bowden confirmed that staff numbers will be lowered in Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.

The redundancies will happen between March 1st and the end of the year - the airline employs 3,965 people.

This programme is not connected with the IAG takeover bid.

Those who choose to leave Aer Lingus will be offered a severance deal that will include six weeks pay for every year worked in the company - and a series of long-service bonuses starting at €5,000 after 10 years, and running to €20,000 after 25 years.

The overall amount that can be paid-out is capped at €200,000.

RTE report that the airline could save up to 20 percent by replacing longer-serving, highly-paid staff with cheaper employees.

This is part of a two year cost-cutting programme called the cost optimisation and revenue excellence (CORE) plan that was introduced by outgoing chief executive, Christoph Mueller.

A redundancy scheme was introduced in 2013. While some staff members expressed their interests in voluntary redundancies at that time - uncertainty over the pension scheme that the airline shared with the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) meant that they were ultimately unwilling to leave.