Strike forces 200 Aer Lingus flight cancellations

Aer Lingus has confirmed it has cancelled 200 flights into and out of Irish airports which were due to operate on May 30, the day of the strike by cabin crew.

The airline yesterday issued a travel advisory notice to passengers confirming that the flights which had been put in jeopardy by the cabin crew action over rosters, were now being cancelled.

The airline felt it had to make a decision about the flights for the sake of the passengers. Even before yesterday’s cancellations, 18,000 of the 28,000 passengers who had been booked to fly on this day next week, had been in touch to make alternative arrangements.

Aer Lingus is now advising the remaining 10,000 passengers they can either:

- Rebook to another day — they can select a flight on any day up to June 9;

- Request a full refund.

Both options can be accessed through the “manage booking” section of the company’s website.

Flights between London Gatwick and Dublin and Knock will still operate using Gatwick-based crew. A number of additional flights have also been put on using “hire-in” aircraft on May 29 and 31 in order to try to alleviate some of the disruption.

Yesterday’s decision to cancel so many flights makes it even less likely there will be a successful intervention by a third party before cabin-crew union Impact mounts pickets at Shannon, Cork, and Dublin Airports next Friday.

The dispute centres on the rosters being worked by the cabin crew.

Impact claims its members can 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. It wants a roster similar to that for pilots at the airline, of five work days followed by three rest days.

However, airline management says it has analysed staff rosters for the past 12 months and found the average working week for cabin crew was 30 hours, and any incidence of staff working greater than 50 hours in a seven-day period was less than 0.5%. It has also said “on no occasion” had crew had to work six days on, one day off and six days on again.