A court injunction to prevent a strike by Irish airport workers tomorrow (Friday) came too late to prevent airlines from operating a revised flight schedule.
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Ryanair sought the injunction to prevent the industrial action by Irish union Siptu.
The strike was due to take place to occur between 5am and 9am at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
DAA lawyers claimed 10,000 passengers were due to fly in and out of Dublin airport alone during the four-hour strike period.
It would have affected thousands of passengers arriving for St Patrick’s weekend, as well those flying to Paris for Ireland’s rugby match with France. Passengers returning from the Cheltenham horse racing festival would also have been hit.
But Aer Lingus said that it was “too little, too late” and that “the damage had already been done” as it had to reschedule the flights of thousands of passengers.
An airline spokesman told the Irish Indpendent: “The decision comes less than 36 hours before the stoppage was due to commence. The cloud of uncertainty created by the strike threat has damaged Aer Lingus’s business and disrupted thousands of our customers.”
Ryanair said it will still operate a revised flight schedule “to prevent further inconvenience to our customers”.
The DAA welcomed the Dublin High Court ruling and called the proposed strike “unwarranted”.
Siptu members at the DAA and Aer Lingus were due to hold the four-hour strike over changes to their pensions.
Aer Lingus staff are opposed to changes being made to their pensions without consent. DAA staff also face pension reform.
The dispute centres on a €750 million deficit in the pension scheme that covers staff at Aer Lingus and the DAA.