Aer Lingus: More flights cancelled because of pilot pay dispute

Updated 1 hour ago

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) plans to suspend industrial action at Aer Lingus.

IALPA executives met on Wednesday and recommended members accept the Labour Court’s recommendation to increase pilots’ wages by 17.75 per cent.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled so far. Last month’s strike and a work-by-regulation order that began two weeks ago as part of a long-running dispute over wages involving members of the association.

On Monday, the Labour Court recommended a 17.75% increase in pilots’ wages over four years.

The court recommended that the increase be awarded as follows:

The IALPA executive resolved to recommend that the Labour Court’s recommendations be accepted after a meeting on Wednesday night.

In a statement, IALPA said the testing organisation would “immediately suspend any continuing measures of work under the regulations that have been in place since 26 June, pending the outcome of the vote”.

The union said it would hold a series of consultations with its members before voting on the terms of the Labour Court’s recommendations in the coming weeks.

IALPA president Mark Tighe called the pay increases set out in the recommendation a “big win for pilots.”

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Aer Lingus said it welcomed Forsa Airlines and IALPA’s “acceptance of the Labour Court’s recommendation and decision to discontinue the industrial action”.

“We expect IALPA to complete the voting process as soon as possible.”

The Labour Court’s recommendations also propose ending the 2022 pay structure, scrapping the crew agreement on rostering and summer holidays, and terminating the debts owed by pilots to the company as part of that agreement.

Aer Lingus said on Wednesday it was cancelling a further 25 flights due to the pilot strike.

Cancellations are for Monday, July 15th and Tuesday, July 16th.

The airline said it plans to announce further cancellations on Thursday morning, and details of the cancelled flights can be found here: website.

Aer Lingus said it would contact customers directly whose flights were cancelled.

We will also contact your travel agency.

“Customers affected by these cancellations will be given the option to change their flight free of charge or can request a refund or voucher,” the company said in a statement.