Aer Lingus pilots begin eight hour work stoppage

Hundreds of Aer Lingus pilots who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association are striking this morning in a dispute over pay.

The work stoppage, which began at 5am and runs until 1pm, has led to the cancellation of 120 flights impacting up to 17,000 passengers.

The pilots are seeking a pay rise of up to 24% to take account of increases in the cost of living since their last wage hike in 2019.

However, the company is refusing to boost their pay by this amount without new productivity and flexibility concessions being agreed, because other groups of workers at the company have only received a pay increase of 12%.

The pilots are marching and picketing at Dublin Airport this morning, before they return to work at lunchtime.

No other workers at the company are expected to join the work stoppage by the pilots.

Yesterday, Aer Lingus announced a further 120 flight cancellations between Wednesday and Sunday of next week on top of the 270 it had already cancelled since the industrial action began three days ago.

On Wednesday the pilots began an indefinite work to rule in an effort to force the company to accede to their demands.

The Labour Court has issued an invitation to the two parties involved in the dispute to attend a meeting on Monday to review the situation.

Both the company and pilots have accepted the invitation to take part in the talks.

Pilots union IALPA has also backed away from a plan to escalate its industrial action, because of the development.

On Tuesday the two sides met separately with the Labour Court to see if negotiations could be progressed.

However, having met pilot and management representatives, the court said it could not assist at that point.

But it did say that it would review the situation in July, which begins on Monday.

It also asked both sides not to take steps to escalate the dispute further in the meantime.

On Thursday management and union representatives met face to face for five hours, but the talks broke down without any agreement.