Aer Lingus to contact passengers as flights cancelled due to industrial action

Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Aer Lingus passengers who are impacted by pilots’ industrial action next week are to be contacted by the airline from Friday.

Pilots at the airline are to begin an indefinite work-to-rule from next Wednesday after balloting for industrial action, which means they will not engage in overtime or out-of-hours duties.

The move has been branded as “insidious” by Aer Lingus, which is cancelling up to 20 per cent of flights over a five-day period.

Donal Moriarty, chief corporate affairs officer with Aer Lingus, said they were taking the move to prevent further cancellations.

He said that this form of industrial action “gets worse day by day” and that there was a risk that further cancellations would be needed.

“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,” he told RTÉ Radio.

He said that people have also been given the option to cancel or rebook their flights for a later date for free.

Pilots, represented by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), are seeking a pay increase of 24 per cent, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.

Aer Lingus has described the pay demand as unrealistic and said there had been no pay deals in Ireland that delivered such an increase.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said it was “utterly reprehensible” that children due to go on holiday were being “used as pawns” in the industrial relations dispute and urged the airline and the pilots to “sort this out”.

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 that Aer Lingus pilots are already paid “very well” and said their salaries were “in line” with the market rates.

“There is a pay deal on offer to them of 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.”