Aer Lingus confirms more flight cancellations

Aer Lingus has confirmed it’s cancelling an additional 122 flights up till 7 July because of the ongoing industrial motion by pilots.

The airline has now cancelled virtually 400 flights because of an indefinite work-to-rule and strike motion by pilots.

The work-to-rule means not working over time or finishing up some other out-of-hours duties.

An eight-hour strike from 05:00 -13:00 native time is deliberate for Saturday.

Aer Lingus mentioned that because of the “indefinite nature” of IALPA pilots’ industrial motion it “must cancel” further flights as much as 7 July.

The disputes committee of Fórsa, the dad or mum union of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA), is anticipated to fulfill on Friday to determine whether or not to present the inexperienced gentle to an additional work stoppage by Aer Lingus pilots in Ireland.

RTÉ is reporting that the advice for an extra strike was made by IALPA on Thursday.

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

The airline issued an invite for talks to IALPA on Wednesday after pilots started their work-to-rule.

IALPA had been calling for a 24% pay rise for members.

Capt Mark Tighe, president of IALPA, mentioned that the 24% enhance is a “cumulative determine of inflation from 2019, our final pay rise”.

Speaking to BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme on Friday, Capt Tighe mentioned in an effort to resolve the dispute, the union had mentioned it could settle for lower than an inflationary rise.

“We don’t imagine anyone needs to be getting lower than inflation, however yesterday in an effort to resolve this, we mentioned we’d settle for lower than inflation.”

However, he added:

“We imagine inflation is a really cheap declare on this present time.”

On Friday, he claimed that Aer Lingus has escalated the state of affairs with the pilots.

IALPA has recommended to trade union Fórsa that the additional strike should be longer than the action planned for Saturday, RTÉ has reported.

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

Aer Lingus has described the potential of further strike action as “entirely inappropriate given the request of the Labour Court this week that the dispute should not be escalated”.

Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus’ chief corporate affairs officer, said the airline is “willing to go back to the Labour Court on a formal joint referral basis”.

He said Aer Lingus has encouraged IALPA and Fórsa to “agree to this step”.

Capt Tighe, however, said on Friday morning that he doesn’t believe “at this point in time” that the Labour Court can resolve the dispute.

He said the union will have further news by mid-afternoon on Friday.

“The Labour Court has asked both sides not to escalate. The company have escalated and we are in a place now where we will be too,” he said.

A group of students and teachers from Shimna Integrated School in County Down who were retuning from a trip to Berlin had their flight home cancelled while they were in the airport.

Teacher Luke McWatters, said that their 21:45 flight on Thursday was initially showing as delayed and then, more than two hours after the flight was initially due to take off, they were told it was cancelled.

“Trying to ring through to Aer Lingus I was on three different calls to three different agents who, every time I got to a certain way through said: ‘Because you’re a group we can’t do anything for you -you have to contact group Aer Lingus who don’t open until 9am’.”

Mr McWatters informed the BBC’s Evening Extra programme that he felt that they had been “left high and dry”, with no provide of lodging or meals.

He mentioned the group slept on the airport ground.

Mr McWatters mentioned they had been supplied an alternate flight on 1 July.

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

Half of the group travelled to Edinburgh, whereas the opposite half caught a flight to Poland, with each teams booked on flights again to Ireland on Friday.

Mr McWatters mentioned that the help for Aer Lingus had “fallen very short of what you would expect from a major airline dealing with children”.

The BBC has contacted Aer Lingus for a response.

The variety of flights cancelled to date because of the present industrial motion, Aer Lingus mentioned, is 270.

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

A full listing of cancelled flights could be discovered on the airline’s web site.

In an announcement on Thursday, Aer Lingus mentioned that the eight-hour strike motion by pilots tomorrow “could be an opportune time for IALPA to fulfill pilots to regulate IALPA’s mandate in order that it’s able to participating in significant negotiations that may resolve this dispute”.

Co-pilots can begin out at about €36,000 (£30,400), with packages rising primarily based on precise flying hours.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ has reported a captain on the high of the dimensions could be paid about €287,000 (£242,000).

Capt Mark Tighe defined on Thursday that this could take as much as 26 years.

There are variations for pilots relying on whether or not flights are quick or long-haul.

The airline has mentioned passengers with flights booked as much as 7 July have numerous choices obtainable.

Aer Lingus will contact passengers who’ve had their flight cancelled immediately through SMS, e-mail or via their journey agent to advise them of their choices.

These choices embody altering the date of your reserving freed from cost, making use of for a refund voucher for future journey or a refund for the complete worth of your flight.

If a passenger is scheduled to journey up till 7 July however their flight has not been cancelled, they will additionally change their reserving freed from cost or apply for a refund voucher for future journey.

“We perceive the frustration you should be feeling proper now. Our groups are working arduous to minimise disruption as a lot as doable,” Aer Lingus mentioned.