Airline still assessing likely impact of pilots’ action but flight cancellations appear to be inevitable
Flight cancellations are likely as pilots operate a strict work to rule from Wednesday of next week. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublinpilots have stopped short of striking in their pay dispute with the company but passengers still face disrupted and potentially cancelled flights, if union members begin industrial action next week as planned.
An Ialpa notice to members says this includes not taking managers’ calls outside working hours, not fulfilling any out-of-hours duties they request, not accepting any changes to published rosters, including those sought on or before the day of a flight, or on Fridays, a busy travel day.
To illustrate the likely consequences, over one week last September, 80 per cent of pilots the airline asked to work outside of rostered hours either excused themselves or did not respond, prompting Aer Lingus to cancel 13 flights and reroute another at a total cost of €2 million., the union to which Ialpa is affiliated, that members were engaging in unofficial industrial action. Katie Morgan, Fórsa’s national secretary, refuted this, saying neither organisation had sanctioned such steps.
Union figures say that Aer Lingus is already short of pilots. It should have around 150 to fly its Airbus A330 fleet but has closer to 130, they say. Moriarty rejects this. “Given normal flexibility, we are more than adequately crewed,” he says. He points out that the airline hired 180 pilots over the last 18 months from thousands of applicants.
Work To Rule Strike Pilots Flight Cancellations
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