Pilots announce eight-hour strike as Aer Lingus cancels 124 flights over work-to-rule period
Aer Will Collins Cancellations Said Keegan, June Five The Run Picture Lingus Dublin Until Colin Days 30 Over
Pilots who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) at Aer Lingus have served notice to the airline that they will undertake an eight-hour work stoppage on Saturday, June 29.
The stoppage will be from 5am to 1pm, and follows an earlier decision by the pilots to engage in a work-to-rule from next Wednesday. It comes as Aer Lingus said 124 flights are being cancelled over five days from June 26.
IALPA President Captain Mark Tighe said: “We have been forced to escalate this dispute following a campaign of antagonism by Aer Lingus management directed toward our members.
“Rather than meeting with Ialpa for direct negotiations to resolve this dispute, the airline is sending letters to Ialpa threatening to cut members’ terms and conditions by unilaterally terminating collective agreements.
“Aer Lingus’ legal representatives have also written to each member of the Ialpa executive committee this week, in their personal capacities, threatening to issue proceedings in the High Court for alleged unlawful conduct regarding an alleged increase in pilot absence due to illness.
“Ialpa refutes this allegation in the strongest terms.”
In response, Aer Lingus said it is appalled that “Ialpa would further escalate this industrial action, following the insidious action previously announced”.
The company said that Ialpa's decision is “clearly designed to inflict maximum damage on passenger’s travel plans at the peak of the holiday season”.
It added: “Aer Lingus will assess the impact of this notice of strike action and do everything we can to minimise the further disruption this will cause to passengers.”
Earlier, Aer Lingus said 124 flights are being cancelled over five days from Wednesday, amid industrial action by pilots which the company branded as an “insidious and indefinite form” of action.
In a statement on Friday, the company said the cancellations will run over five days until June 30, impacting 20,000 passengers.
It said: “The insidious and indefinite form of [the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association] Ialpa's industrial action is designed to severely disrupt passengers in the peak of the summer season.
"Without these cancellations, the impact would be a lot worse for customers. 24 flights a day have been cancelled in the first five days on the industrial action — a total of 124 flights over those five days.”
It added: “This will impact approximately 4,000 customers per day and 20,000 customers over the course of the five days. The level of cancellations is currently at the lower end of the 10% to 20% range.
"However, given the form of the industrial action there may be additional cancellations which happen close to the time of travel.”
It said that the company has automatically rebooked some customers and has begun emailing all other customers informing them of the cancellation and advising them of their options: to change their flight for free, to request a refund or to request a voucher.
Among the affected routes are the Cork and Dublin services to London Heathrow. Also affected are services from Dublin to Paris, Amsterdam, Lyon, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Manchester, Munich, Vienna and JFK Airport in New York.
The list of cancelled flights is now available on the ‘Travel Advisory’ on the Aer Lingus website at aerlingus.com.
Aer Lingus Regional flights, operated by Emerald Airlines, are unaffected by IALPA’s industrial action commencing on 26th June, and will operate as scheduled.