The Aer Lingus AGM is underway with the Chairman Colm Barrington telling the meeting that he had never observed such a dramatic downturn in the aviation industry as occurred in the first quarter of this year. He said that trading conditions in each of the airline's key markets were exceptionally challenging with the Irish air travel market being impacted by rapidly growing unemployment and declining consumer confidence and demand. As expected Chief Executive of Ryanair Michael O'Leary has not turned up for the meeting at which shareholders are putting questions about the airline to the Chairman.