Aer Lingus says customers may only find out about cancellations at departure gates

A representative from Aer Lingus has said it is possible that customers will only be informed of flight cancellations at the departure gate, due to upcoming industrial action by pilots.

Donal Moriarty, chief corporate affairs officer with Aer Lingus, said around 35,000 passengers have been disrupted and over 240 flights have been cancelled over a five-day block from this coming Wednesday to Sunday.

No talks are yet scheduled between Aer Lingus management the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) despite the two sides agreeing over the weekend to sit down again in an effort to thrash out a solution to a damaging pay dispute.

Around 220 flights are now cancelled from Wednesday to Sunday due to industrial action being taken by the pilots’ union, impacting more than 30,000 passengers. Next Saturday,120 flights have been cancelled, because of eight hours of strike action by pilots, which will impact 15,000 passengers. This is in addition to their open-ended work-to-rule starting on Wednesday.

The dispute centres on a 24 per cent pay rise being sought by pilots which IALPA says is in line with inflation and is a retainment of previous pay. Aer Lingus has described these demands as unrealistic.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Moriarty said it is a “possibility” that Aer Lingus passengers will only be informed of flight cancellations when they are at the departure gate ready to board their busy summer flights.

He added that due to the “nature of the industrial action, there could be close-in cancellations caused by pilot unavailability and refusal to work to the contractual flexibility that they have”.

“The insidious nature of this industrial action has the capacity to result in much more cancellations over the coming weeks if it’s not resolved,” said Moriarty.

Moriarty remarked that the Irish airline has managed to "re-accommodate, refund or rebook 80%” of the roughly 35,000 passengers impacted by industrial action, and that work is ongoing to do the same with the rest.

Moriarty also claimed that IALPA had set a “precondition to refuse to engage in the normal industrial relations process”.

He told Morning Ireland that IALPA “will only discuss the dispute in the context of their 24% pay claim, and a refusal to discuss the very things that could increase their pay beyond what’s already on offer”.

“Aer Lingus is perfectly willing to engage in proposals that would see their pay increase beyond 12.25%, but we have to be able to talk about the things that can do that,” said Moriarty, who added that “IALPA are unwilling to talk about those things”.

The government has been pressing for a resolution to the dispute, with Tánaiste Micheál Martin saying today that it was “shocking” that the public were being ignored by both sides in the airline dispute.

“I think it is shocking the degree to which the needs of those who travel are being, in my view, ignored in the context of this dispute,” he said in Luxembourg, where he’s attending a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"There's only one way to resolve this, it's through negotiations and getting around the table. It is that simple by the way, and all disputes end, and the most effective way that they end is by utilising the industrial relations machinery that we have available in the State, which is the WRC and the Labour Court,” Mr Martin said.