Enda Corneille, commercial manager of the former state airline, confirmed the company has made no enquiries about leasing aircraft from Ryanair or any other airline as it did in August when the 450 pilots threatened a two-day stoppage.

It is understood Ryanair has not been contacted by Aer Lingus as yet but would be amenable to lease its main rival planes if requested.

Corneille also ruled out hiring in contract pilots to fly Aer Lingus planes, which would raise qualification and training issues. It was in any case "unlikely we would get them", he said. As management and the pilots' union, Ialpa, recommenced last-ditch talks at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday in a bid to avert a shutdown, Corneille said he "did not foresee any problems providing a service next week". Planes can be hired at the last moment but he did not want to second-guess the talks, he said.

In an escalation of the dispute over terms and conditions for 30 pilots operating out the company's new base in Belfast, the airline has given its pilots until 1pm tomorrow to agree to train the new pilots for Belfast. Any pilots not signed up by then will be suspended without pay.

If this happens, all flights beginning at 6.15am on Tuesday will be hit.

Ialpa has refused to cooperate with the training of new pilots for Belfast until it has reached full agreement on terms and conditions to apply in Belfast. Seven pilots have been suspended without pay for refusing to train pilots.

Ialpa president Evan Cullan said that, while the union accepted that Belfast pilots would be paid less than their Dublin colleagues, it still had issues over pensions, the right of Dublin pilots to work in Belfast on 'Dublin' conditions and union recognition in Belfast.Corneille said that while the company had accepted Ialpa's right to represent Belfast pilots individually, it would not recognise Ialpa for collective negotiations on pay and conditions. He denied this was another example of Aer Lingus following Michael O'Leary's Ryanair, which has refused to recognise trade unions.

"This dispute is about who runs Aer Lingus . . . management or Ialpa, " said Corneille.