Four flights to Spain cancelled

However, rival airline Ryanair has decided not to cancel any flights to Spain from Ireland and predicts the disruption will not be widespread.

The cancelled Aer Lingus flights include round trips from Cork and Belfast to Malaga.

All other Aer Lingus flights to and from mainland Spain, the Canaries, and the Balearic Islands are scheduled to operate as normal, a spokesman said.

Ryanair, which has 600 international flights going to Spain today, has cancelled 44 of them, mostly from Britain and France.

Stephen McNamara, head of communications at Ryanair, said this represented about 7% of all flights to Spain. He said Ryanair was confident that the vast majority of flights would operate as normal.

However, he advised passengers to check the Ryanair website before heading to the airport.