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Escalation of Aer Lingus pilots strike ‘will impact 15,000 passengers’ on single day

An escalation of action by Aer Lingus pilots as part of a pay row has forced the cancellation of 120 flights on Saturday.

The eight-hour strike on the morning of June 29 will affect 15,000 passengers on short-haul services, according to the airline.

Dublin long-haul services on both June 28 and 29 have been re-timed “in order to avoid cancellation of these services”.


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The carrier has already cancelled 124 flights on the first five days of a work to rule by pilot members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) impacting 20,000 passengers between Wednesday and Sunday. 

“The level of cancellations is currently at the lower end of the 10%-20% range. However, given the form of the industrial action there may be additional cancellations which happen close to the time of travel,” the airline warned. 

The union had claimed that it was willing to enter into fresh talks with the airline to try to resolve the impasse on pay.

But Aer Lingus countered by saying Ialpa has “to date refused” to enter into discussions despite a request being made on Sunday.

“Aer Lingus is available for meaningful direct discussions with Ialpa in order to seek a resolution to this pay dispute,” the carrier said. 

“The airline has repeatedly sought to engage directly with Ialpa on ways to increase pilot pay beyond the 12.25% increase agreed with all other collectively bargained groups, based upon reaching agreement on improvements in productivity and flexibility.

Aer Lingus has also asked Ialpa “to re-engage with the industrial relations machinery of the state (the Labour Court and the Workplace Relations Commission) but at this point they have rejected this request.”

However, Unconfirmed reports suggested that both sides had accepted invitations by Ireland’s Labour Court to attend separate meetings today (Tuesday).

Aer Lingus regional flights, operated by Emerald Airlines, and transatlantic services from Manchester airport are unaffected by the industrial action and will operate as scheduled.

Meanwhile, Ryanair is adding extra Dublin flights from Stansted, Malaga and Faro on June 29 and 30 in response to the pilot action at Aer Lingus.

The dispute has caused many Ryanair flights to be completely sold out to these destinations next weekend, according to the budget carrier.

Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady said: “We decided last week not to increase air fares in response to the Aer Lingus pilot strikes. 

“As a result, many of our flights next weekend have completely sold out. 

“We are pleased to be able to add these extra flights to London, Malaga and Faro next weekend using one of our spare aircraft. 

“In the meantime, we are working closely with Aer Lingus to accept some of their transfer passengers during the school holidays. 

“We are working with Aer Lingus to assist disrupted passengers where we have seat availability, and we have also offered Aer Lingus some wet lease capacity over the coming days, if that will assist them to help disrupted passengers during these regrettable and unnecessary pilot strikes.”

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