Aer Lingus has announced the cancellation of 76 additional flights amid ongoing disruption caused by a pay dispute with members of the Irish Airline Pilot’s Association (IALPA).
The cancellations affect flights scheduled to fly between Monday July, 8 and Wednesday July, 10.
In a statement the airline said that the cancellations were required in order “to continue to protect as many services as possible”.
Aer Lingus has said that Customers impacted by these latest cancellations will be given the option to change their flights for free. They will also be able to claim a refund or voucher.
“Aer Lingus fully understands the anxiety being experienced by customers given the uncertainty caused by IALPA’s industrial action and is giving impacted customers as many options as possible,” a spokesperson said.
News of the the cancellations comes ahead of a meeting between representatives of Aer Lingus and IALPA at the Labour Court on Wednesday afternoon.
The meeting represents the latest attempt to bring the two sides together to resolve the ongoing pay dispute, which has seen IALPA members begin an indefinite work-to-rule action, resulting in them withdrawing from out-of-hours services.
Pilots also staged an eight-hour strike on Saturday, during which hundreds of pilots marched around Dublin Airport, holding signs that read, among other things, “no pilots, no profits”.
The industrial action has now resulted in more than 400 flight cancellations, with the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers affected.
The airline admitted the dispute had caused “significant financial and reputational damage”.
IALPA members had been seeking a pay increase of 24%, which they say equates to inflation since their last pay rise five years ago.
If these rounds of Labour Court talks fail, IALPA has said it would return to consider an escalation of its industrial action.
Up-to-date information on all flight cancellations, can be found on the ‘Travel Advisory’ page of the Aer Lingus website.
