Jobs will go over the next few months, mainly among management and support staff.Ministers came under fresh pressure to bale out Britain's big airlines after the Irish government declared its readiness to save Aer Lingus.The Irish Prime Minster, Bertie Ahern, said plans would be drawn up to help the republic's national airline, despite any "difficulties" under European law.Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, welcomed Mr Ahern's comments. "In the current situation no government can stand idly by if they value the social and economic contribution of air travel and the aviation industries," he said.British ministers have so far stuck to the letter of EU legislation ­ although it is not clear that countries on the Continent will do so.Mr Ahern said plans to help Aer Lingus, which has lost 80 per cent of its transatlantic traffic, would be drawn up in consultation with the airline's board and unions.Noel Dowling, of the Irish general workers' union Siptu, said it was "inevitable" that there would be a U-turn on the European policy. "The EU might be beginning to accept the fact that if they don't put aid into airlines in Europe, particularly in the transatlantic areas, whenever there's a pick-up in the aviation industry the only airlines left flying will be the American airlines," he said. "The Americans can put billions into their airlines but Europe has to sit back and watch its airlines disappear."Air Canada announced yesterday that it was temporarily suspending flights from Glasgow and Manchester to Toronto. The company said the "cost-cutting measure" was taken in light of the economic slowdown in North America and Europe.. Granada and Carlton, Britain's two largest ITV companies, have become like rabbits paralysed in the headlights of an oncoming car. Already crippled by one of the most serious advertising downturns to engulf commercial TV, they seem incapable of finding a solution to the now perilous problem of ITV Digital, their jointly owned subscription TV platform.

The business is bleeding cash at a rate of about £1m a day with no apparent end in sight.On top of that, the two have committed to annual spending of £150m for ITV Sport, a pay TV channel that might take years to become profitable. There could hardly be a more potent cocktail of misfortune.Both Carlton and Granada deny that any of these problems threaten their financial viability, but their share prices are beginning to tell another story. Rarely has ITV been in a greater state of crisis, either financially or strategically – this despite the fact that it has been allowed to consolidate down to just three companies in place of the myriad of separate franchises that once existed.According to insiders, Charles Allen, the self-styled Mr Tough Guy who runs Granada, has told Carlton that a solution must be found to ITV Digital by Christmas or he is pulling the plug. The Government has been told the same thing, and if it thinks this mere bravado, it had better watch out Mr Allen seems serious. The Government is relying on ITV Digital to achieve its policy aim of switching off the analogue signal by 2010. For choice, it would like to do so even earlier, so as to free up potentially valuable spectrum for resale.It is hard to credit now, but it was little more than a year ago that advisers were being lined up to float ITV Digital, then called ONdigital, on the stock market with an expected valuation of more than £1bn.

Today, ITV would have to pay to get someone to take Digital off its hands. Whatever happens, a purely commercial solution to the problem now seems unobtainable.The business model would work better if admin, subscription management and marketing costs could be shared with another customer billing company, such as Centrica, BT Retail or even BSkyB. The last of these names, however, would be politically unacceptable. Much as Rupert Murdoch would like to control the digital terrestrial platform alongside satellite, the Government would presumably never allow it.Sky has already been denied entry to the terrestrial platform once and it seems unlikely it will be allowed in now, even in extremis.

That doesn't stop Tony Ball, chief executive of Sky, from dreaming What a victory it would be for Sky if he succeeded. The liberal, anti-Sky media and political establishment would be vanquished, and it would almost be worth the cost for that satisfaction alone.Everyone can dream, but actually it makes little sense to allow Sky to acquire the platform. Given Sky's existing commitment to satellite, it would have no incentive to market the service The same would be true of the cable companies. As for the utilities, it is hard to see what would be in it for them.If there is no acceptable private-sector solution available, then a resolution is going to have to come, at least in part, from the public sector. At some stage the BBC will have to be brought into the loop if the Government is as serious as it says about switching off analogue. The digital terrestrial platform would in essence have to become public property, with all broadcasters given equal access.