On Wednesday, the union leader confirmed that pilots from Aer Lingus will complete a vote on critical Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving their ongoing pay dispute with the airline. The airline had disclosed its intention to call off 76 more flights scheduled from 8th to 10th of July as a response to a work-to-rule campaign from members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa). This action was taken in conjunction with the Labour Court initiating its fourth attempt to mediate the conflict. Both parties also noted that the court would make a recommendation focused on fostering industrial harmony in the airline a few days post a hearing lasting for over three and a half hours on Wednesday.
Ialpa president, Capt Mark Tighe, confirmed after the hearings that the union will hold a vote among its Aer Lingus members based on any Labour Court suggestion. The Labour Court is using the Industrial Relations Act to try and resolve the impasse between Aer Lingus and its pilots. Before the negotiations, Capt Tighe cautioned that the pilots would undoubtedly hold firm against their employer if this newest attempt to resolve the deadlock fails.
Labour Court’s suggestions are not obligatory, which means both parties in the disagreement can either accept or reject them. Ialpa members had previously rejected preliminary recommendations made by the court in May. The pilots are lobbying for pay increases of over 20 per cent to offset the inflation of the past few years, which the union claims is fair. Aer Lingus retorts that they can’t afford to give them more than the agreed 12.25 per cent with cabin and ground staff unless the pilots give more in terms of productivity and flexibility.
Aer Lingus’s chief corporate affairs officer, Donal Moriarty, argued that this would only marginally affect the conditions of individual pilots and would enable the airline to operate more efficiently. Post-negotiations, Capt Tighe pointed out that Lynne Embleton, the CEO of Aer Lingus, had recently received shares in the company’s parent organisation, London-listed International Airlines Group, amounting nearly €300,000. The bulk of the flight cancellations announced on Wednesday affect short-haul business routes to cities including London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt, with a single American flight impacted each day.
In the wake of recent events, Aer Lingus, the premier Irish airline, experienced a total of 468 flight cancellations due to continuous industrial action by the pilots’ union, Ialpa. This impact began a week ago and has since affected an estimated count of 75,000 travellers, not to exclude the 120 services that were terminated last Saturday due to an eight-hour pilot strike.
To alleviate the effects of the ongoing disruption on their operations and to preserve as many services as possible, Aer Lingus made a decision to cancel 76 extra flights spanning from Monday the 8th to Wednesday the 10th of July. The airline communicated this publicly in a statement and assured its customers that the details of these changes would be relayed to those affected.
Following this current wave of cancellations, the company offered an option for affected patrons to alter their flights without incurring any charges. Additional remedies such as a full refund or a voucher are also offered.
Aer Lingus managed to maintain some of its services by resorting to a practice known as “wet leasing”, and brought in crew and aircraft from other operators. One such case is the hiring of a Boeing 777 to cover the Dublin to Chicago route. To ensure their European routes were covered, they hired two Airbus A320s that flew to popular Greek islands, the Spanish city of Malaga, and to Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic.