Aer Lingus confirms further flight cancellations

Aer Lingus has confirmed it will cancel a further 122 flights until July 7 due to ongoing industrial action by pilots.

The airline has now canceled almost 400 flights as a result of an indefinite industrial action and strike by pilots.

Regular work means not working overtime or performing any other overtime duties.

On Saturday, an eight-hour strike is planned from 05:00 to 13:00 local time.

Aer Lingus said that due to the “indefinite nature” of industrial action by Irish Airline Pilots’ Association pilots, it “must cancel” additional flights until July 7.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ had reported that the recommendation for an additional strike had been made by IALPA on Thursday.

However, on Friday afternoon, Captain Mark Tighe, president of the union, said the Irish Labor Court had invited both parties to the dispute to return to them on Monday afternoon.

“We are in the process of discussing that and it would certainly matter whether or not we escalate industrial action,” he told Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme.

“I hope now that they have realized the seriousness of the situation and that they will be able to apply their considerable expertise.”

Talks between it and Aer Lingus to resolve the ongoing pay dispute broke down without resolution on Thursday.

A group of students and teachers from Shimna Integrated School in County Down, who were returning from a trip to Berlin, had their flight home canceled while at the airport.

Teacher Luke McWatters said their 9.45pm flight on Thursday first showed up as delayed and then, more than two hours after the flight was originally due to take off, they were told it had been cancelled.

“Trying to call Aer Lingus, I was on three different calls with three different agents who, every time I got through, said: ‘Because you’re a group, we can’t do anything for you – we need to The Aer Lingus contact group doesn’t open until 9am.

Mr McWatters told the BBC’s Evening Extra program that he thought they had been “left high and dry”, with no offer of shelter or food.

He said the group slept on the airport floor.

McWatters said they were offered an alternative flight on July 1.

“At that stage we made the call to try other airlines and split up as a group,” he added.

Half the group traveled to Edinburgh while the other half took a flight to Poland, with both groups booked on flights back to Ireland on Friday.

Mr McWatters said support for Aer Lingus was “well short of what you would expect from a major airline dealing with children”.

The BBC has contacted Aer Lingus for a response.

Captain Tighe said “passengers are extremely fond of us as pilots. Management is not up to you, we do it every day.

“We’re left in a position where our salary is being eroded and all we’re looking to do is maintain our salary.”

Speaking on BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster program on Friday, Captain Tighe said in an attempt to resolve the dispute, the union had said it would accept less than an inflationary rise.

“We don’t believe that anyone should take less than inflation, but yesterday in an effort to resolve this, we said we would accept less than inflation.”

However, he added: “We believe that inflation is a very reasonable claim at this current time.”

IALPA had recommended to the Forsa union that the additional strike be longer than the action planned for Saturday, RTÉ reports.

If sanctioned, the Force will have to give Aer Lingus seven days’ notice before pilots stop work.

Aer Lingus has described the potential for further strike action as “wholly inappropriate given the Labor Court’s request this week that the dispute not escalate”.

Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus’ chief corporate affairs officer, said the airline was “prepared to return to the Labor Court on a formal joint reference basis”.

He said Aer Lingus had encouraged IALPA and Forsa to “agree to this step”.

All Aer Lingus UK regional flights, operated by Emerald Airlines, and Aer Lingus UK transatlantic flights to and from Manchester will operate as scheduled.

A full list of canceled flights can be found on the airline’s website.

Co-pilots can start at around €36,000 (£30,400), with packages increasing based on actual flying hours.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ has ​​reported that a captain at the top of the ladder can be paid around €287,000 (£242,000).

Captain Mark Tighe explained on Thursday that this could take up to 26 years.

There are differences for pilots depending on whether the flights are short or long.

The airline has said that passengers with flights booked by July 7 have a number of options available.

Aer Lingus will contact passengers whose flight has been canceled directly by SMS, email or through their travel agent to advise them of their options.

These options include changing your booking date free of charge, applying for a refund voucher for future travel or a refund for the full value of your flight.

If a passenger is scheduled to travel by July 7 but their flight has not been cancelled, they can also change their booking free of charge or apply for a refund voucher for future travel.

“We understand the frustration you must be feeling right now. Our teams are working hard to minimize disruption as much as possible,” Aer Lingus said.