MORE than 60 Aer Lingus flights between England and Ireland have been cancelled this week due to the ongoing industrial action by pilots who are striking over pay.
The work to rule action by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) began at midnight on June 26, with pilots now refusing to work overtime, accept changes to set rosters, or take on out-of-hours management requests.
On Saturday, June 29, hundreds of Aer Lingus pilots undertook an additional eight-hour strike, which saw them march around Dublin Airport.
Dressed in full uniform, the pilots set off at 6am from Aer Lingus's head office at the airport and marched past the two terminal buildings while holding placards and banners.
The walkout ended at 1pm, at which point the pilots returned to their jobs, but continued to adhere their work to rule restrictions, which remain in place as, despite multiple rounds of talks between the airline and the union, the dispute remains unresolved.
Lengthy talks took place yesterday between Aer Lingus and IALPA, which were mediated by Ireland’s Labour Court, who are attempting to help resolve the dispute over pay.
The union is seeking a 24 per cent pay rise for its pilots, to take account of inflation since their last wage increase in 2019.
Aer Lingus is willing to offer pay increases of 12.25 per cent or above if "improvements in productivity and flexibility" are discussed.
Last week Aer Lingus cancelled hundreds of flights to “minimise disruption to passengers” while the industrial action is underway, which impacted more than 17,000 of its customers.
Some 120 of those flights were cancelled during the pilots’ strike on Saturday, June 29.
This week, with talks ongoing, the airline has confirmed the cancellation of more than a hundred more flights, including 33 flights from Ireland to England, that were due to fly between July 1 and July 7.
Those flights, from Cork and Dublin airports, were due to land in London Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester airports.
A further 29 flights from the same airports in England to Ireland have been cancelled over the same period.
“In order to continue to protect as many services as possible from the impact of IALPA’s continuing industrial action, Aer Lingus has had to take the step of cancelling 122 additional flights,” the airline confirmed in a statement regarding this week’s cancellations.
“Implementing these cancellations is to enable us to protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible,” they explained.
Customers impacted by cancellations this week will be given the option to change their flights for free.
They will also be able to claim a refund or voucher, the airline has confirmed, while adding that they “understand this has caused major disruption to both our customers and our flight schedules”.
The options available to those affected “will be communicated directly to impacted customers as well as travel agents, while the Aer Lingus ‘Travel Advisory’ page will also have up to the minute information on all the options”, the airline states.
“Aer Lingus fully understands the anxiety being experienced by customers given the uncertainty caused by IALPA’s industrial action and is giving impacted customers as many options as possible,” they added.
