Aer Lingus issues updated travel advice after pilots announce strike

Aer Lingus has responded after the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) announced an eight-hour strike for Saturday, June 29 on Friday, June 21.

Aer Lingus announced on Friday that in addition to the industrial action taken by IALPA “as per rule” from 26 June to 2 July, the company had also received a strike notice from IALPA for the period from 5am to 1pm (Irish standard time) on Saturday 29 June.

“This will cause significant disruption to both our customers and our flight schedules,” the Irish airline said in a statement on Friday.

“We fully understand customers’ fears in light of the uncertainty this has caused.

“We are offering all customers with bookings within these dates the opportunity to change flights or request refunds or vouchers.

“We are also providing additional resources to minimize disruption.”

Aer Lingus said on social media: “If your flight has been cancelled, we will contact you directly by email, text message or through your travel agent to inform you of all the options available to you.”

The airline said that all regional flights operated by Emerald Airlines and Aer Lingus UK transatlantic flights to and from Manchester will operate as planned.

A message to our customers:

The Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA) has announced a strike from 5am to 1pm on 29 June 2024, in addition to the existing work-to-rule measures from 26 June. This will cause significant disruption to our customers. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/T1LABKBMFg

— AerLingus (@AerLingus) 21 June 2024

Aer Lingus had previously said in a statement on Friday that the company had cancelled 24 flights a day, for a total of 124 flights, during the first five days of the IALPA industrial action from June 26 to 30.

The cancellations affect around 4,000 customers each day and 20,000 customers over the course of five days.

“The number of cancellations is currently at the lower end of the range of 10 to 20 percent,” the airline said on Friday.

“However, due to the nature of the industrial action, there may be additional cancellations that occur close to the time of travel.”

Aer Lingus said the industrial action was designed to “severely disrupt passenger traffic during the peak summer season”, adding that “without these cancellations the impact on customers would be much worse”.

Aer Lingus added that some customers were automatically rebooked on alternative flights and that all other customers were notified of the cancellation by email and informed of their options: rebooking their flight free of charge, requesting a refund or requesting a voucher.

The list of cancelled Aer Lingus flights is now available on the Travel Advisories page of the Aer Lingus website at AerLingus.com.