'Too late' for travel insurance or changing flights amid Aer Lingus pilots dispute
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A "potential catastrophe" is on the cards if the talks between Aer Lingus and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) do not end with a resolution, a leading travel agent has said.
Ialpa members who work for the airline served notice of their intention to go on indefinite work-to-rule, from Wednesday, June 26.
This will mean pilots will not do any overtime or out-of-hours duties requested by management, with the action set to begin from a minute past midnight on Wednesday, June 26.
Clare Dunne, chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association, told RTÉ's that the group were "extremely concerned" about the industrial action.
She said: "The potential catastrophe is a disaster for the travelling public, it is dreadful.
"They are the victims of all of this, the people who have been looking forward to their holidays for many, many months.
"They've paid a lot of money and this could be their one trip of the year to get away from the normal toll of ordinary life
"These people are earning a lot less than pilots."
Ms Dunne warned it was "too late" for people to take out travel insurance as the companies would mark the disruption as a 'known event'.
She said that there would "inevitably" be disruption for passengers.
She explained: "It's very difficult to know at this point — it (work to rule) is better in one way as flights will be operating.
"But inevitably, there will be disruption."
She gave an example of a flight being delayed on the inbound route, which may end up taking cabin crew and pilots out of hours.
This, in turn, would take them over their scheduled work hours and they could decide not to go as a result under work-to-rule.
The dispute between pilots and the airline centres around pay.
Members are seeking a 23.8% pay rise over the next three years, but they have already rejected a Labour Court recommendation of an increase of 9.25%
Ms Dunne noted that it currently is the busiest period of the year for airlines and flights, a time which usually sees a reliance on pilots and cabin crew working overtime or answering the phone out of hours to cover the increase in demand and flights.
There had been a "big fall-off" in the number of people booking with Aer Lingus in the wake of the breakdown in talks and industrial action, she said.
"People can't change if they're booked with Aer Lingus — if they do, they'll be penalised.
"For people who have booked, our advice is to sit tight. Talk to your travel agent, and we'll see how it pans out — that's all we can do at this point."