Full list of 58 Aer Lingus flights NOT pulled in strike as 24 CANCELLED daily

AER Lingus punters have been hit by flight cancellations TODAY – before 22 flights per day are axed next week.

Some 20,000 passengers will be impacted when the airline cut one fifth of flights over a five-day period when pilots go on work-to-rule strike from Wednesday.

Cancellations will strike on flights due to operate from Wednesday June 26 until Sunday June 30, with at least 4,000 customers affected daily.

It’s understood short-haul flights are most at risk of being pulled from schedules.

Passengers were to find out from today if their flights were cancelled, with thousands of customers left waiting to get through to jammed Aer Lingus call centres.

Newlyweds-to-be revealed their anguish over the possibility of flights to their wedding destinations being cancelled last minute, while Taylor Swift fans due to jet in for Dublin gigs frantically sought clarification from airline chiefs.

Aer Lingus bosses confirmed two flights have been pulled from schedules today, but not connected to impending strike action.

Flights between Dublin and Faro Algarve – E1 498 and E1 499 – due to depart at 7.15pm from Dublin and 11pm from Faro have been cancelled.

And around eight flights were canned on Thursday but airline bosses don’t predict any cancellations for Saturday June 22, posting: “We are currently unaware of any flight cancellations at this time.”

Pilots earlier this week served notice of their intention to launch an indefinite work-to-rule from next Wednesday, after the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in a dispute over pay.

The pilots are seeking a pay increase of 24 per cent, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.

But Mark Tighe, president of the Irish Airline Pilots Association, said that cancelling up to 20 per cent of flights due to pilots choosing not to come in on their days off raises “serious questions about managements operation of the airline”.

He told RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland: “By selling tickets, they’re committing to bring people from A to B and so they have to have enough pilots to do that.”

Tighe claimed “there’s a shortage of pilots” leading to added disruptions as they refuse to work on their days off.

And he couldn’t say as to when the work to rule action could wrap up, because talks between pilots and Aer Lingus have already gone on for almost two years.

The IALPA’s notice to strike will involve the pilots not working overtime or “any other out of hours duties requested by management”.

It will also involve the pilots only working the published rosters and “not accepting or working any amendments to published rosters”.

Pilots will not log into the Aer Lingus portal or e-crew outside of work hours nor will they answer phone calls outside of work hours.

Aer Lingus confirmed that ALL Aer Lingus regional flights – with flight numbers EI3000 – EI3999 – and all UK transatlantic flights to and from Manchester are NOT impacted by the industrial action.

Donal Moriarty, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aer Lingus, said the airline was cancelling flights “to protect passengers and prevent the situation from becoming worse”.

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And he said the airline is open to intervention from the Workplace Relations Commission to resolve the dispute.

Aer Lingus bosses blasted the “wholly unnecessary impact” on customers of the strike, and said many flight cancellations “may happen close to the time of travel”.

They added in a statement on Thursday: “Therefore, in order to protect as many services as possible from the impact of the industrial action, Aer Lingus has to take the step of cancelling between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of our flights on the first five days of the industrial action.

“These cancellations will be implemented over the course of the next two days. Implementing these cancellations is to enable us to protect as many services as possible for as many of our customers as possible.

“The details of those cancellations will be communicated to impacted customers over the next couple of days.”

Aer Lingus confirmed several options will be made available to punters due to travel between June 26 and July 2 – including changing flights for free or cancelling flights and claiming a refund or voucher.

Chiefs confirmed: “We will do everything we can to minimise the impact for customers.

“However, it is inevitable that there will be disruption as a result of this industrial action, and we will communicate any changes, delays or cancellations to impacted customers as soon as possible.

“Where there are cancellations, we will look to re accommodate customers as quickly as possible and will work with other airlines, with partner airlines and seek to hire-in aircraft for this purpose.”