800 to go at airlines
Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair are both laying off hundreds of their employees.
Virgin said it was shedding 600 jobs, about 7% of its 8,400 workforce.
Ryanair, Europe's largest low cost carrier, said it was making 200 pilots, cabin crew and engineers redundant at its Dublin Airport base.
The carrier also said it was making a 20% cut in aircraft based at the airport from 22 to 18 and more than 100 flights (18%) from its summer schedule.
Virgin has cut capacity by about 2% this winter and is planning a further 8-10% cut in the next year.
The airline has already got a pay freeze in place.
Steve Ridgway, Virgin's ceo, said that faced with falling demand, all airlines had to cut their costs through a variety of measures.
These included capacity, wage freezes, unpaid leave and staff numbers.
The airline was now in talks with staff representatives about securing the 600 voluntary redundancies.
Ryanair, which described its cuts as "substantial", said further cuts to the winter schedule would be announced later.
The airline blamed part of the need for cuts on the Irish government's "idiotic" €10 tourist tax which comes into force on March 30.
It also attacked charges and "third rate facilities" at Dublin Airport which it said had led to a drop of 150,000 passengers a month.
www.virgin-atlantic.com www.ryanair.com