Air travel chaos is threatened next week by Aer Lingus pilots who yesterday gave notice of a 24-hour strike after one of their members was suspended.
The action is planned from midnight on Thursday, and if it goes ahead it will affect over 30,000 Aer Lingus passengers travelling in and out of the Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
The pilot, a captain, was suspended after he refused to comply with new work practices brought in by Aer Lingus but rejected by the pilots' union, IMPACT.
While the union disputed the new conditions, Aer Lingus stated that all negotiation processes had been exhausted and it did not expect to take part in any further discussions. The new conditions were brought in at midnight on Sunday.
Assistant general secretary of IMPACT Mr Michael Landers said the union had told the 530 pilots not to comply with the terms and conditions, which were rejected in a ballot last Wednesday. One of the conditions was that the time between shifts had been reduced, he said.