Aer Lingus flight sales fall ahead of pilots’ industrial action
The airline said the action by pilots — a work-to-rule, starting on June 26 — will inevitably result in disruption for holidaymakers in the coming weeks and months.
Irish Travel Agents Association president Angela Walsh said bookings with the airline “are down 20-30% across the board” over the past day “whether coming from travel agents or from the public”.
The airline typically carries more than 40,000 passengers a day during the summer. Strikes could spell chaos for the airline industry across the continent ahead of the peak summer weeks.
Ms Walsh described the move by pilots to work-to-rule from midnight next Wednesday as “very strategic and effective”.
“What we’re seeing is that people are holding off on booking,” she said, adding:
“People don’t want to be caught up in this.
“And people don’t realise how disruptive work-to-rule can be.
Work-to-rule is a form of industrial action involving employees adhering to published rosters very strictly, with no overtime or working outside official hours possible.
This could be a particular issue for an airline during the busy summer months given the unpredictable nature of international travel timelines.
The Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) delivered the notice of industrial action to Aer Lingus on Tuesday afternoon in an escalation of their dispute over pay rises.
Ialpa and the airline have been at loggerheads over a new pay deal for pilots, with the union seeking the equivalent of a 23.8% hike, which is at variance with a Labour Court recommendation made last month for a 9.5% raise.
Both union and airline sources said the action could have a particularly detrimental effect on an airline at high summer given “the company relies on the goodwill and flexibility of both pilots and cabin crew”, in the words of one source.
“Without that, they will have capacity issues,” they added.
Aer Lingus said it was “assessing the impact” of the pending action.
“This action will have a wholly unnecessary impact on customers who are travelling in the coming weeks, at what is peak holiday season for families,” a spokesperson said, adding that the action will “cause a significant impact on our flight schedules”.
“We will do everything we can to minimise the impact for customers,” the spokesperson said.
“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.”
The airline did not reply to a query as to the extent the announced action has already impacted its business.
In the Dáil, the Government was urged to step in and become a “broker” in resolving issues between the two sides in order to avoid significant disruptions to the holiday season.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the frustration of Aer Lingus pilots has been building for a long time.
“Aer Lingus failed to deliver pay and conditions improvements in line with colleagues in British Airways and Lufthansa,” Ms McDonald told the Dáil at Leaders’ Questions.
She added that the Government “needs to be more assertive” and “become a broker and a positive influence in sorting this out”.
The Aer Lingus pilots say they have received no pay rise since 2019 and are seeking a 24% increase, in line with the spike in inflation in that time.
Aer Lingus previously agreed to a 9.5% pay rise as recommended by the Labour Court last month.
The airline has described the pilots’ demands as “untenable”, and says it would bring the pay package of the top-remunerated captains to €350,000 per annum.
Daniel Langan, a spokesman for Ialpa, which represents 700 of Aer Lingus’s 800 pilots, said that “time is important” as things stand in terms of brokering a deal between the airline and the union.
“No pilot wants to be working to rule. Many see Aer Lingus as their career and have long-established ties with it,” he said.
However, as of Thursday night, there was no word of potential fresh talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Mr Langan said the union’s negotiating team could not be released from flying duties before the end of this week due to a current shortage of pilots.
