AER Lingus is advising its customers to book flights and make their normal travel arrangements, ahead of today's meeting with SIPTU at the Labour Relations Commission.
Over 600 SIPTU cabin-crew members have served strike notice from midnight in a dispute about hotel accommodation for members operating on the transatlantic route to New York. They are complaining that new accommodation represents a serious deterioration in their working conditions.
One possible solution would be for the company and the union to agree criteria for cabin crew's hotel accommodation. A similar agreement already exists between Aer Lingus and the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association.
It is expected that today's discussions will cover the wider industrial relations problems the airline has encountered with cabin crews in implementing the Cahill Plan. This is the second time within eight months that crews have threatened strike action.
Another major dispute is brewing over a pay claim on behalf of all 5,000 SIPTU members at the airline.