‘It’s very expensive to stay five more days in Dublin,’ passengers stranded as Aer Lingus pilots hold 8-hour strike

The pilots, all in full uniform, set off at 6am from Aer Lingus’s head office on the airport site and walked past the two terminal buildings twice holding placards and banners.

The demonstration, which took place in pouring rain, caused major traffic disruption around the airport.

The walkout, which ended at 1pm, came after primary schools in Ireland finished for their summer holidays and when many will be preparing for family trips abroad.

Amelie Saez and Henri Couve from France, were flying from Dublin to Lyon and informed that their return flight tomorrow was cancelled.

“Our flight was supposed to fly on Sunday morning, and they changed it to Thursday, July 4 – five days later,” Ms Saez said adding they feel “confused”.

“We just had an email with a new flight for July 4. The information that it’s transferred and that’s all at the moment.

“That’s why we’re here to speak with them and find another solution because we can’t take a new flight. We need to go to France this weekend,” she said.

Mr Couve said the couple were in Terminal 2 to try and get their flight rebooked for this weekend.

“We have nothing to do and no place to sleep,” he said.

“So the special mission is to find another flight and for the company to pay for the hostel because it’s very expensive to stay five more days in Dublin,” he added.

Mary McLoughlin, who is from the US but lives in Co Donegal, is travelling with her family today to visit relatives in the US.

“We’ve been planning the trip for over a year, and in the last few weeks, it seemed as if we might not actually go so we were just confused and struggling to figure out what we would do as alternative flights,” Ms McLoughlin told the Irish Independent.

“I guess it pulled through a couple of days ago, so it all worked out in the end,” she said.

Megan Partesano travelled to Dublin with her family for Taylor Swift’s concert from Connecticut in the US.

The family arrived in Dublin last Wednesday and found out yesterday that their flight home was cancelled.

“We spent three days here, I was here for Taylor Swift. Our plan was to come to the airport, pick up a rental car, and then do a loop of the whole country,” she said.

“But now, as of yesterday, our flight for next Sunday, July 7, was cancelled.

“So we’re like: ‘While we’re here, let’s talk to someone from Aer Lingus and try to get this sorted out so we can get a new flight home’,” she said.

“We got a week’s notice that it’s been cancelled so we wanted to just get on a flight as soon as possible. I got the very last seat on my flight.

“We’re now going to different airports, so it’s a bit complicated.

“My family, there’s four of us, we all have to split up – so we’re all on different flights home going to all different places.

“But our car is in New York, so I’m going to Connecticut, they’re all going to Philadelphia. So we’re just going to figure it out,” she said.

She said she is aware of the pilots’ strike happening outside the terminal.

“It makes total sense. I don’t fault anyone. It’s within their right to strike. I believe in workers’ rights and human rights,” she said.

“And if they’re being unfairly compensated and working under unfair conditions, then they have absolutely every right to be striking as they are.

“It’s unfortunate that has impacted us in the way that it has, but I don’t fault or blame them at all. They have to do what they have to do,” she added.

Meanwhile, Mark Tighe, President of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) who has been an Aer Lingus pilot for 34 years, was among the pilots who stood at the picket line in the pouring rain.

“Today’s strike is in response to the company refusing to acknowledge the reasonableness of the cumulated inflation. We’re not looking to increase our pay, we’re looking to protect our pay,” he told the Irish Independent.

“We’re looking for our pay to be increased in line with the inflation over the last five years.”

It comes Aer Lingus and trade union representatives will meet again at the Labour Court on Monday.

“The Labour Court have invited both parties in, we’ve already been into the Labour Court so we can only assume that the Labour Court are looking to see what agreements might be made,” said Mr Tighe.

“We have moved repeatedly over the 22 months, the company have not moved at all. Most recently, at our last meeting a few days ago, they stated the same position that any pay increase would have to be funded by the pilots themselves,” he added.

The picket line dispersed shortly after 9:30am but the full withdrawal of labour continues until 1pm.

“Then, we will go back to work to fly our passengers to the destinations that they have booked,” said Captain Daniel Lanigan, Vice-President of Finance at Ialpa.

Mr Lanigan, who has been a pilot with Aer Lingus for eight years, said: “We’ve gone through many processes such as the Labour Court, and the internal Pilot Pay Tribunal, and they have not given the pilots a satisfactory resolution. So, at the moment, what we’re looking for is an inflationary pay increase – we’ve had no pay increases since 2019.

“At the moment, [Aer Lingus] haven’t agreed to anything, so that’s unfortunately why we’ve had to withdraw our labour.

Captain Lanigan confirmed the work-to-rule will continue as the pilots decided yesterday not to announce any further strike action ahead of going to the Labour Court this Monday.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has apologised for the “serious disruption” being caused by today’s strike.

“Aer Lingus apologises to passengers for the serious disruption caused by IALPA’s strike action today. The company restates its view that today’s strike action by IALPA is very damaging to our customers, the wider staff in Aer Lingus and the company itself,” said Aer Lingus.

“Ialpa’s actions continue to inflict serious reputational and financial damage on the airline and are increasingly making a resolution of the dispute more difficult. Aer Lingus welcomes yesterday’s Labour Court invitation to both parties back into the Court and hopes that Monday’s engagement in the court can result in an outcome that will bring normality to the travelling public.”

Prior to Saturday’s full strike, pilots had been involved in indefinite work-to rule industrial action that began on Wednesday. Almost 400 flights have been cancelled so far, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

Aer Lingus pilots wanted to ramp up industrial action by announcing another strike but a decision was put on hold at a crucial meeting.

A committee of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association’s (Ialpa) parent union Fórsa decided to adjourn without considering the proposed escalation following a Labour Court invitation to a meeting on Monday.

This meant the disputes committee did not make a decision on the plan for further stoppages that could have grounded more flights.

It is understood the Fórsa committee felt the court’s request for no escalation in the dispute before Monday should be respected. Fórsa and the airline have accepted the court’s invitation.

The Labour Court plans to carry out a comprehensive review of the dispute over the pilots’ claim for a 24pc pay rise over three years on Monday.

Aer Lingus customers at Dublin airport react to flights impacted by industrial dispute – Friday 28th June

If it finds room for negotiation, it may suggest new talks. But it has a challenging task ahead as the exploratory talks it held this week failed to find a basis for discussions. Another round of face-to-face talks, instigated by Aer Lingus, collapsed without much sign of progress.

Passengers will hope that next week’s intervention might finally resolve the long-running row that has led to hundreds of flight cancellations this week.

Aer Lingus said has had to cancel a further 122 flights next week as a result of the ongoing industrial action by pilots.

The cancelled flights are from Wednesday, July 3, to Sunday, July 7.

An eight-hour strike is taking place today while an indefinite work-to-rule is ongoing.

The gap between the pilots and airline is still wide. Aer Lingus wants to discuss productivity measures to improve a pay offer of 12.25pc – but Ialpa has refused to discuss this. It has lowered its pay demand slightly.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan issued a stark warning about the potential outlook for holidaymakers and other passengers if there is no progress on Monday.

“Obviously, this is a crucial intervention and if it fails, it will have the most dire consequences, in my view, including a very serious escalation of industrial action afterwards,” he said.

In a statement yesterday, Aer Lingus said a further 122 flights would be cancelled between July 3 and July 7 to “protect as many services as possible”.

Mark Tighe of IALPA speaks to the media after talks break down with Aer Lingus

“These cancellations will be implemented today, and details will be communicated to impacted customers. Details of the services impacted are set out on the Travel Advisory page of aerlingus.com,” it said. “These customers will be given the option to change their flights for free, 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.”

Aer Lingus has urged Ialpa to consider a joint referral back to the Labour Court in a bid to end the dispute.

Ialpa president Captain Mark Tighe said: “We are in a process within our executive and our union where we are considering an escalation in industrial action because the company have informed us that if we don’t agree to work practice changes, they’re simply going to do away with our work practices,” he told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster show.

“The company have escalated, so I would expect there would be some sort of escalation in response.”

Meanwhile, pilots at unions across the US and Britain have rowed in behind their colleagues at Aer Lingus.

Allied Pilots, which represents the 16,000 pilots at American Airlines, is among those to offer its “steadfast” support for the Aer Lingus pilots.

“On behalf of the 16,000 American Airlines pilots the Allied Pilots’ Association (APA) represents, I am proud to pledge our steadfast support for the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association’s efforts to conclude CLA [Collective Labour Agreement] negotiations with Aer Lingus management,” said APA president, Captain Ed Sicher.

He added: “APA has a long-standing history of standing shoulder to shoulder with our Irish brother and sister pilots.”

Mr Sicher said the US pilot union stands ready to “share our knowledge and experience” with Ialpa.

Balpa, the union which represents pilots in the UK, said it also “stands firm” with colleagues at Aer Lingus.

“We urge all members to show support and solidarity with their colleagues at Ialpa,” it said.

Balpa’s general secretary, Amy Leversidge, said that the union has “great concern” about the pilot dispute at Aer Lingus.

The 17,000-strong pilot union at US carrier Delta has also shown its support for Aer Lingus counterparts in advance of Saturday’s strike.

“Please make the walk and ensure that no Aer Lingus pilots are having difficulties getting on their flights,” the union said in a post on X.

The US-based Airline Pilots’ Association, the umbrella group representing 78,000 pilots at 41 US and Canadian airlines, has also backed the pilots at the Irish carrier.