Travel plans in chaos over Aer Lingus strike

The travel plans of tens of thousands of holidaymakers have been thrown into chaos after Aer Lingus cabin crew served notice of a 24-hour strike to take place in just over two weeks’ time.

The action starts a minute after midnight on Friday, May 30, just as the summer holiday exodus begins and on the eve of a bank holiday weekend.

While the airline has a short window to place contingency plans in place, dozens of flights in to and out of each of those airports will likely be cancelled if no resolution can be found.

Cabin crew members will place pickets at Dublin, Cork, and Shannon Airports for the duration of the stoppage.

Impact, the trade union for cabin crew members, said its members were taking the action over “erratic” rosters which, it claimed, meant cabin crew could work up to 60 hours in a seven-day period, resulting in shift patterns of six working days and one rest day, followed by six more working days.

The cabin crew want a roster similar to pilots at the airline — five work days followed by three rest days.

Impact official Michael Landers said cabin crew were ready to take immediate action because Aer Lingus had failed to engage on the rostering issue for so long.

“Cabin crew have sought to engage with the company on this issue on several occasions over several years, but the company has simply refused to consider anything other than the erratic rostering patterns that have become the norm at the airline,” said Mr Landers.

“It has resulted in an exhausted crew who feel now that the only option left to them is the option of last resort, which is a work stoppage. It’s regrettable that it has come to this, but the current arrangements are unsustainable.

“What we’re seeking here is a system that ensures adequate rest between blocks of duty, and which we know is in place in other airlines. In the long term, it would be a more sustainable approach for the airline as well as for the crew.”

Aer Lingus has described the threatened action as “completely unwarranted”.

“We continue to engage in discussions with the trade union on the rostering issues in dispute,” said a spokesman.

“It is unacceptable that the trade union has chosen to threaten disruption to customers’ travel plans in pursuit of roster arrangements, which have such cost implications for our business, that they are simply undeliverable.”

He said the airline will do all in its power to prevent any disruption to passengers. “We will inform customers via all available channels of communication of the options available to them in the event that disruption to service is imminent.”

Leo Varadkar, the transport minister, called on Impact and Aer Lingus to make full use of the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court so that a strike can be avoided.

Two months ago, Aer Lingus was forced to cancel the flights of up to 3,000 passengers due to a four-hour stoppage planned by ground-crew union Siptu. The action was stopped by legal action 48 hours before it was due to begin.

However, Aer Lingus said that came too late as the damage to its business had been done.

Cork’s cost

Cork Airport is not an attractive enough commercial proposition for Ryanair to operate more routes out of, according to the airline.

Ryanair will only operate seven routes from Cork in the winter schedule, as the airline believes it costs too much to fly passengers in and out of the airport.

The routes which will make up Ryanair’s winter schedule from Cork are: London Stansted, London Gatwick, Liverpool, Lanzarote, Wroclaw, Gdansk, and Vilnius.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the demand for the flights was there, but the commercial proposition was not attractive enough for the airline to move aircraft off other routes and base them at Cork Airport.