Aer Lingus calls for “meaningful” talks with pilots

Updated 9 minutes ago

Aer Lingus said the airline had written a letter to pilots asking for direct talks to find a solution to the ongoing pay dispute.

At least 244 Aer Lingus flights will be cancelled for next week due to industrial action by pilots, the airline confirmed on Saturday.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the airline had “made several attempts to negotiate directly with the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) on ways to increase pilot salaries above the 12.25% increase agreed with all other bargaining associations, on the basis of agreement on improvements in productivity and flexibility.”

It was said that IALPA had rejected talks with the airline and ended recent direct talks with Aer Lingus on Monday, June 17.

Earlier this week, IALPA announced permanent, to-the-rule service from Wednesday, June 26, amid an ongoing wage dispute.

On Friday, IALPA members at Aer Lingus announced they are now planning a strike for Saturday 29 June from 05:00 to 13:00 (BST).

Aer Lingus said 120 flights were cancelled due to the strike on June 29, affecting 15,000 passengers.

RTÉ reported that the number of cancelled flights could increase due to pilots’ indefinite rosters.

In total, the industrial action affects more than 40,000 passengers flying with the airline between June 26 and July 2.

Aer Lingus said the cancellations would enable the company to “protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible”.

However, regional flights to and from Belfast and Great Britain during this period “will not be affected by any industrial action and will operate as planned,” the airline said.

On Friday, Aer Lingus said in a statement that it was “appalled that IALPA would escalate this industrial action further than the insidious measures already announced”.

It said the strike was “clearly designed to cause maximum damage to passengers’ travel plans”.

Aer Lingus said it was working to keep disruption to passengers to a minimum.

On Thursday, the airline announced that it would have to cancel between 10 and 20 percent of flights in the first five days of the campaign.

The following flights have been cancelled: short-haul flights from Dublin to London Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam, Lyon, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Manchester, Munich, Vienna as well as the short-haul flights from Cork to London Heathrow and the long-haul flights from Dublin to JFK.