AER LINGUS has said it cannot be certain it will be able to operate its flight schedule from Tuesday and has offered passengers the opportunity of either changing travel arrangements or cancelling bookings.
Pilots at the airline are scheduled to take industrial action from Tuesday as part of a dispute with management over rosters.
Talks between the airline and pilots were continuing last night at the Labour Relations Commission in an attempt to avert the industrial action which could cause disruption for up to 30,000 passengers a day.
Aer Lingus yesterday apologised to intending passengers for the distress caused as a result of the threatened disruption.
“We realise that this is extremely disruptive for our customers and we apologise most sincerely for the distress this is causing,” it said.
“We have activated our change- for-free facility for customers who have a booking to travel on Tuesday, June 7th, or Wednesday June 8th.
“Customers who wish to change their booking to a later or earlier date of travel may do so, free of charge, by using this facility.”
The airline said services which would not be affected by the potential disruption were:
* all Aer Lingus regional services,
* the Washington to Madrid service,
* services from Belfast International Airport.
The dispute centres on rosters which the Irish Airline Pilots Association, a branch of the trade union Impact, has argued are excessively onerous.
Pilots claim that under the current roster arrangements, they may only get one day off after working five or six days. They say this is due to an overall shortage of pilots at the airline.
Management has maintained the problem was not pilot shortages but pilot productivity.
Pilots have said that from Tuesday, they will not work on days that they are not on the roster or on annual leave days, and would report for duty one hour later than their rostered reporting times.
Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller said earlier this week that the planned withdrawal of flexibility by pilots would “destroy our ability to operate a proper schedule as we will miss our airport slot times, parking stands, gate positions and will be unable to fulfil flight connections for customers”.
Ryanair yesterday said that there had been a 25 per cent surge in late bookings for Tuesday as a result of the possibility of disruption to the Aer Lingus schedule.
Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said the airline was “starting to really warm” to the pilots’ union, “who continue to cause uncertainty for Aer Lingus holidaymakers at peak times of the year and now, with yet another Aer Lingus strike looming large.
“Ryanair has seen a surge in late bookings for flights next Tuesday,” Mr McNamara added, “when industrial action looks set to close Aer Lingus operations, stranding up to 30,000 would-be Aer Lingus passengers.”
See aerlingus.com for flight details