Following a notice of an eight-hour strike by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) on Friday, Aer Lingus has been compelled to cancel a total of 120 flights to be carried forward on Saturday, June 29th. This sudden strike is expected to inconvenience 15,000 passengers who had short-haul journeys planned.
In a bid to circumvent any further interruptions, Aer Lingus has adjusted its timetable for long-haul services on June 28th and 29th. Notifying passengers of their adjusted travel plans, the airline is systematically rebooking some of its customers onto alternate flights while others have started receiving emails to make them aware of the updates. In these emails, passengers are given options to either change their flight without any additional charges, apply for a refund or claim a voucher.
Aer Lingus has also added that the list of flights that have been cancelled on June 29th can be found on its website under the Travel Advisory section. It is important to note that Aer Lingus Regional flights, stewarded by Emerald Airlines, won’t be affected by IALPA’s industrial action and will abide by their original schedule.
On Friday, the IALPA notified Aer Lingus of its members pausing work from 5am to 1pm on Saturday, June 29th, exactly an hour after Aer Lingus had earlier proclaimed cancelation of 124 flights over five days starting Wednesday, to counterbalance the stringent and indefinite industrial action called by IALPA. The strike is a part of IALPA’s ongoing push for a 23.88 per cent pay amalgamation.
Flights affected by this include those from Dublin to New York JFK and Cork to Heathrow, and also flights from the Republic’s capital to several European cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome, Manchester, and more.
IALPA’s president, Captain Mark Tighe, accused Aer Lingus of intensifying the feud by carrying out a “campaign of antagonism” against union members. He further mentioned threats from the company of instigating High Court action against him and his team for “alleged unlawful conduct”, i.e., a supposed rise in sickness among pilots, which he vehemently refutes. Furthermore, the company’s action of individually contacting union members through a pilot-sickness review body has been perceived as an intimidation tactic by the union’s president.
According to his statement, Aer Lingus had intimated termination of all contracts with the pilots’ union due to incompatible working practices with the airline’s operations. The scale of the upcoming week’s flight cancellations underscored the airline’s reliance on the pilots’ cooperation and adaptability, said Captain Tighe. He emphasised that the pilots always strive to deliver superior customer service.
But the inflexibility in the pilots’ shifts, as a result of Ialpa’s working rules, impedes Aer Lingus’s ability to maintain its packed holiday schedule. The airline reasoned that the purpose of these cancellations is to limit any potential last-minute flight disruptions and maintain as many journeys as possible.
Aer Lingus, on Friday, rebuked the union for causing additional stress to customers by announcing an eight-hour strike. The airline stated that Ialpa’s decision seemed to be designed to cause the greatest possible havoc to travellers during the holiday peak time.
Contrarily, Captain Tighe contended that the situation would not have escalated to this point if Aer Lingus had reopened discussions with Ialpa, rather than threatening to downsize their terms and conditions. He insisted that they never wanted things to reach this stage and reminded everyone that the passengers’ convenience is of utmost importance to the pilots.
Donal Moriarty, the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Aer Lingus, mentioned that the airline is attempting to arrange a meeting with the union in the upcoming week.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus is providing multiple options to all passengers booking flights from Wednesday, June 26th, and Tuesday, July 2nd. These options include cancellation and full refund or altering the booking without any charges.
From early Friday, Aer Lingus has been directly informing passengers affected by flight cancellations and changes. The airline anticipates this communication process to extend into Saturday.