Aer Lingus passengers face more flight cancellations as talks break down

Holidaymakers face more flight cancellations next week as Aer Lingus pilots consider further strikes following a break down of talks aimed at resolving their bitter pay row.

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), part of the trade union Fórsa, met company representatives in a Dublin Airport hotel on Thursday morning as a pilots’ work to rule at Aer Lingus moved into its second day.

However, talks broke down in early afternoon with each side blaming the other for failing to move from their respective positions.

Capt Mark Tighe, Ialpa president, warned further strikes could follow the union’s planned eight-hour stoppage on Saturday morning, while pilots will also continue their strict work to rule.

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Aer Lingus branded further strikes “entirely inappropriate” given that the Labour Court asked the parties this week not to step up the dispute.

The airline is weighing further flight cancellations to follow the 270 services it has axed through to next Tuesday, to limit the impact of the pilots’ action on customers, according to its chief corporate affairs officer, Donal Moriarty.

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“We are currently assessing more cancellations out to 3rd, 4th and 5th of July,” he said, adding the airline would tell affected passengers as soon as it had decided which flights to drop.

Capt Tighe confirmed the Ialpa executive would meet on Thursday afternoon to decide on further industrial action in response to what he called the company’s “escalation” of the dispute.

He added that the options included “withdrawal of labour”, ranging from further eight-hour strikes similar to that planned between 5am and 1pm next Saturday, to all-out stoppages.

Ialpa will seek approval from Fórsa’s enterprise and services division’s disputes committee before embarking on a second strike.

Capt Tighe noted that pilots had moderated their claim for a 23.88 per cent pay rise and argued that the union’s demands would cost Aer Lingus less than €5 million.

He accused the company of threatening to abandon its existing collective agreements with the pilots’ union and of attempting to aggravate the row by removing pilots’ travel privileges and denying them access to lounges.

However, Mr Moriarty argued the union had simply cut its demand to 22 per cent and calculated that the increase Ialpa was seeking would still cost Aer Lingus €40 million to €45 million extra per year.

He denied that removing privileges from “pilots engaged in industrial action” was an escalation, saying the airline was trying to maximise the number of seats available to passengers.

The airline boss maintained that the company raised the modernisation of agreements with Ialpa only in the context of boosting productivity and flexibility.

Aer Lingus is not prepared to offer pilots any increase higher than the 12.25 per cent agreed with cabin crew and ground staff without extra productivity.

Ialpa says this is asking pilots to pay for their own salary increases, which Capt Tighe dismissed as unreasonable on Thursday.

Both cabin crew, represented by Fórsa, and ground crew, who are members of Siptu, earlier this year agreed 12.25 per cent pay rises with Aer Lingus.

Those deals allow them to pursue further pay claims if the airline agrees higher increases with any other group of its workers.

Sources say the company fears that giving pilots more than 12.25 per cent without some productivity deal will trigger claims from cabin and ground crews.

Mr Moriarty said Ialpa representatives told the company on Thursday they had no mandate to negotiate on the basis of increased productivity, flexibility or revision of their existing agreements with Aer Lingus.

“We would encourage them to meet members and revisit that mandate,” he said.

Mr Moriarty called on Ialpa to accept a Labour Court offer to assist in the dispute. Capt Tighe said the union remained open to meeting at all times.

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