Aer Lingus has confirmed it will cancel over 100 flights on the day an eight-hour strike by pilots is due to take place.
On Friday, the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association (Ialpa) confirmed its members at the airline will stage strike action on Saturday, June 29th as part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
Ialpa is seeking a pay increase of 24 per cent, which the association says equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019, but the airline has described the pay demand as unrealistic.
The strike is in addition to a planned indefinite work-to-rule action, set to commence on Wednesday, June 26th, when Aer Lingus pilots will cease doing overtime.
After the work-to-rule plans were confirmed, the airline cancelled 124 flights over the first five days of the industrial action, affecting around 20,000 customers.
A full list of the cancellations was released on Friday afternoon. A short time later, Ialpa announced the strike on June 29th.
On Saturday, Aer Lingus confirmed it has since cancelled 120 flights which were scheduled for the day of the strike, impacting 15,000 customers on short-haul services.
Long-haul services have been re-timed on both June 28th and 29th to avoid further cancellations.
"Aer Lingus is automatically rebooking some customers onto alternative flights and has begun emailing all other customers informing them of the cancellations and advising them of their options: to change their flight for free, to request a refund or to request a voucher," a statement from the airline said.
Details of all the flights affected by the cancellations can be found in the 'travel advisory' section of the Aer Lingus website.
Aer Lingus' regional flights, which are operated by Emerald Airlines, are unaffected by the strike and will operate as scheduled.
'Campaign of antagonism'
Speaking on Friday, Ialpa president, captain Mark Tighe, accused Aer Lingus' management of a "campaign of antagonism", claiming the airline had sent "threatening" letters to the association's members.
"The scale of next week’s anticipated flight cancellations, as described by Aer Lingus, illustrates the extent to which the company relies on the flexibility and goodwill of pilots," he added.
"We go above and beyond to provide a good service to our customers. The company has recently enjoyed a 400 per cent increase in profits, which demonstrates how much the company benefits directly from that flexibility and goodwill.
"As always, Ialpa remains open to talking with Aer Lingus in direct negotiations to settle this dispute in a way that fairly deals with pilots’ pay," he said.
The airline condemned the strike action, saying it was "appalled" Ialpa would escalate the dispute, claiming the action was "clearly designed to inflict maximum damage on passenger’s travel plans".
