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The president of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA) has said claims by Aer Lingus that it had “repeatedly sought” to engage with the union were not accurate.<\/p>\n
Mark Tighe said the union met airline representatives Monday and “we’ve asked repeatedly since then to meet them, most recently the 21st and yesterday the 22nd,” he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Irish Broadcaster RT\u00c9 he added:<\/p>\n
“The impasse clearly sits with Aer Lingus.”<\/p>\n
Aer Lingus has said it has written to pilots to request meaningful direct discussions to seek a resolution to the ongoing dispute over pay.<\/p>\n
At least 244 Aer Lingus flights are now cancelled next week due to pilots’ industrial action, the airline confirmed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 reported that the airline said it has “repeatedly sought to engage directly with Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) on ways to increase pilot pay beyond the 12.25% increase agreed with all other collectively bargained groups, based upon reaching agreement on improvements in productivity and flexibility.<\/p>\n
It said IALPA has refused to enter talks with the airline, and it had ended the most recent direct discussions with Aer Lingus on Monday 17 June.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week the IALPA served notice of an indefinite work-to-rule from Wednesday 26 June as part of an ongoing pay dispute.<\/p>\n
On Friday IALPA members at Aer Lingus said they now plan to strike on Saturday 29 June from 05:00-13:00 BST.<\/p>\n
Aer Lingus said 120 flights have been cancelled on 29 June due to the strike action, impacting 15,000 passengers.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 reported that the number of cancelled flights could increase under the pilots’ indefinite work-to-rule.<\/p>\n
Overall, the industrial action will affect more than 40,000 passengers due to fly with the airline from 26 June and 2 July.<\/p>\n
Aer Lingus said the cancellations would enable it to “protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible”.<\/p>\n
However, regional services to and from Belfast and Great Britain during this period “will not be affected by any industrial relations action and will operate as scheduled,” the airline said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Aer Lingus said in a statement that it is “appalled that IALPA would further escalate this industrial action, following the insidious action previously announced.”<\/p>\n
It said the strike is “clearly designed to inflict maximum damage on passengers’ travel plans”.<\/p>\n
Aer Lingus said it will work to minimise disruption to passengers.<\/p>\n
On Thursday the airline announced that it would have to cancel between 10% and 20% of flights over the first five days of the action.<\/p>\n
The flights that have been cancelled are: short-haul Dublin to London Heathrow; Paris; Amsterdam; Lyons; Berlin; Birmingham; Brussels; Dusseldorf; Rome; Frankfurt; Geneva; Hamburg; Manchester; Munich; Vienna; as well as short-haul Cork to London Heathrow and long-haul Dublin to JFK.<\/p>\n
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