Aer Lingus cancels more flights as pay dispute continues

Irish carrier Aer Lingus has cancelled another 122 flights this week as industrial action by the pilots’ union IALPA continues.

The IAG-owned airline is making the new cancellations between Wednesday (3 July) and Sunday (7 July) due to the dispute with IALPA over potential pay increases for Aer Lingus pilots.

“Implementing these cancellations is to enable us to protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible,” said Aer Lingus in a statement.

IALPA has instigated a strict “work to rule” policy since 26 June for pilots working for Aer Lingus. This means the pilots will not work overtime and reject all requests from the airline to change their rosters. The union also held an eight-hour strike on 29 June as part of the dispute.

Aer Lingus had to cancel more than 200 flights last week due to the industrial action and disruption to services is set to continue this week after talks between the two sides failed to reach an agreement. Although both the airline and the union returned to the Labour Court in Ireland on Monday (1 July) in a bid to reach a breakthrough.

The airline is giving passengers affected by this week’s cancellations the option to change their flight for free or 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,” added the carrier in a statement.