Aer Lingus passengers are due to begin finding out from today if their flights have been cancelled next week due to industrial action by pilots.
Yesterday, the airline said it will have to cancel between 10% and 20% of flights in the first five days of a work-to-rule by members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA).
Up to 40,000 passengers could be impacted by the cancellations between Wednesday 26 June and Sunday 30 June.
“Implementing these cancellations is to enable us to protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible,” Aer Lingus said in a statement.
“The details of those cancellations will be communicated to impacted customers over the next couple of days.”
Customers scheduled to travel between 26 June and 2 July will be given the option to change their flights for free or cancel their flight and claim a refund or voucher.
Aer Lingus pilots, who are members of IALPA, voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action, up to and including strike action, in a dispute over pay.
The union served notice to Aer Lingus of an indefinite work-to-rule from next Wednesday, which will involve the pilots not working overtime or “any other out of hours duties requested by management”.
It will also involve the pilots only working the published rosters and “not accepting or working any amendments to published rosters”.
Pilots will not log into the Aer Lingus portal or ‘e-crew’ outside of work hours nor will they answer phone calls outside of work hours.
Aer Lingus said it fully understood the anxiety being experienced by customers, given the uncertainty caused by the dispute.
“IALPA’s industrial action will have a wholly unnecessary impact on customers who are travelling in the coming weeks, at what is peak holiday season for families,” it said.
Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, described the industrial action by IALPA as insidious.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time, Mr Moriarty said it was inappropriate that customers were having this disruption imposed upon them.
“Unfortunately as a company, we can’t accede to the blackmail of a 24% increase in pay,” he said.
Also on the same programme, Captain Mark Tighe, IALPA President defended their pay demands, describing them as reasonable.
He said that passengers are very important to pilots and that they do not want to disrupt their travel plans.
“Management have left us with no option but to exercise our rights to defend our position,” Captain Tighe said.
