Aer Lingus has informed passengers of flight cancellations planned for next week as pilots announced an all-out stoppage for eight hours next Saturday.
The airline said 24 flights a day have been cancelled between Wednesday and Sunday next week – a total of 124 flights over those five days.
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“This will impact approximately 4,000 customers per day and 20,000 customers over the course of the five days,” Aer Lingus said in a statement.
The routes affected include the Dublin-New York JFK transatlantic service.
Other routes from Dublin affected are those to London Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam, Lyon, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Manchester, Munich and Vienna. The Cork-London Heathrow route is also affected.
You can find a full list of the cancelled flights in the table below.
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Pilots responded by announcing an all-out stoppage for eight hours from 5am to 1pm on Saturday, June 29th, after accusing the company of escalating their dispute over pay. This is in addition to the previously announced strict work to rule from Wednesday next week.
Members of the Irish Airlines Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) served notice of the stoppage on the company on Friday afternoon.
The company said the decision to strike was designed "to inflict maximum damage" on passenger’s travel plans at the peak of the holiday season.
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"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," the airline said.
An indefinite work-to-rule by Aer Lingus pilots means they will not engage in overtime or out-of-hours duties.
The move has been branded as “insidious” by the company.
Donal Moriarty, chief corporate affairs officer at Aer Lingus, said this form of industrial action “gets worse day by day” and there is a risk further cancellations will be needed.
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He told RTÉ radio: “What will happen over the next couple of days is that impacted passengers will be contacted and advised of cancellations if it affects them and then given their options in terms of refund, re-accommodation or voucher.”
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Mr Moriarty said people have also been given the option to cancel or rebook their flights for a later date for free.
Pilots, represented by Ialpa, are seeking a pay increase of 24 per cent, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.
Ialpa president Mark Tighe said the work-to-rule will see pilots working to the letter of their contracts.
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He said: “Some serious questions need to be raised here about management’s operation of the airline because if you think about it they’re selling tickets, so they’re committing to bring people from A to B, so they have to have enough pilots to do that.
“If they’re going to cancel up to 20% of the operation because pilots don’t want to work on a day off, that’s not credible really, there’s something else going on here – there’s a shortage of pilots.”
Aer Lingus has described the pay demand as unrealistic and said there have been no pay deals in Ireland that delivered such an increase.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said people need to “step back from the brink” in relation to the dispute.
“The Government has a willingness for parties to come together through the Government’s industrial relations mechanisms, and they are available to all of the parties and I would encourage parties to it,” Mr Harris said on Friday.
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“People need to step back from the brink in relation to this.
“Of course, anybody has a right in their workplace to highlight an issue, I get that. But what I do not get is the fact that at this time of the year, when people in our country are about to go on their summer holidays, people who’ve worked hard and saved up throughout the year are about to be seriously discommoded by this action.
“I don’t think there is a justification for that, quite frankly, in terms of the impact it will have.
“The impact is disproportionate and… people need to step back from the brink.
“This will affect children and parents looking to go on holidays. It also affects business and will also affect people coming into our country too in terms of tourism at these busy times.
“Disputes only ever get resolved by engagement, that’s how they always end up being resolved. The question for both parties now is, will they try and resolve it and show a maturity in relation to this, or are they going to allow this to trundle on and then ultimately end up in talks.
“Talks need to happen. What I’m asking is now we shorten the protracted process and all the chaos that would ensue for people and actually get around the table quickly.”
Mr Moriarty said: “We would like to engage in direct discussions with Ialpa to reach a reasonable settlement to this pay dispute and we are trying to do that, but unfortunately Ialpa ended those discussions last Monday.”
He said Aer Lingus pilots are already paid “very well” and their salaries are “in line” with the market rates.
“There is a pay deal on offer to them of a 12.25 per cent increase, which they’ve declined,” he said.
“We have also tried to discuss with them building upon that over and above 12.25 per cent by discussing improvements in productivity and flexibility, but unfortunately Ialpa have been unwilling [to engage] with those discussions.”
Around a quarter of all Ialpa members are on the top pay package of around €287,000, which includes the value of pensions and other benefits.
To reach this pay package takes 26 years and several exams, representatives have said.
