Air travel plans face chaos in two days of strikes

The travel plans of thousands of Aer Lingus passengers face further disruption this month after the union representing cabin crews announced two more days of strike action.

The 24-hour strikes planned for Monday and Wednesday, June 16 and 18, are almost certain to bring all the airline’s services in and out of the country to a halt, maximising disruption at the start of the holiday season.

The decision last night by Impact to serve further strike notice on Aer Lingus followed the “collapse” of talks with management about cabin crew rosters after three days of talks.

Aer Lingus described the decision as “indefensible” and said it is now considering its position regarding “the latest Impact threat”.

In a statement, Aer Lingus accused the union of showing “disregard for customers and Ireland’s reputation”, “despite being offered what they sought in last week’s strike”.

The cabin crews are seeking rosters similar to pilots, with five days on and three days off.

Impact said management had refused to negotiate in good faith “and instead issued a take-it-or-leave-it proposal, which it knew would be unacceptable to staff because it would mean hundreds of jobs losses in Aer Lingus and Irish companies that rely on its business”.

Management has already told staff that to implement such rosters would cost in the region of 300 jobs.

Impact official Michael Landers said the union had been willing to continue talks over the weekend, but accused management of walking away.

Mr Landers said management’s only proposals in three days of talks would require staff who currently fly short- and long-haul flights to be rostered solely for one or the other.

“This would immediately make the crewing of transatlantic flights from Ireland unviable because it would be impossible for cabin crew to meet their targets for flying hours (called ‘block hours’) if they only flew transatlantic flights. Block hours do not take account of the time staff are on duty when they are not actually flying,” Mr Landers said.

He claimed the company had refused to consider a trial period for the union’s proposed 5:3 rosters, even though Impact believed the rosters could be implemented at no extra cost to the airline and with no loss of productivity.

Aer Lingus rejected the claim that its proposal was “take it or leave it”, saying it had left the talks yesterday believing them to be adjourned until next week.

The airline said its management team had “proposed the basis” on which they believed the sought roster could work, and had also “indicated willingness to explore alternative suggestions by Impact”.

Aer Lingus director of communications Declan Kearney said it now appeared Impact was willing to strike on issues “other than” the sought roster.

“At this point it is unclear to Aer Lingus what the real motivation of Impact has been in the recent and now newly threatened disruptive action,” he said.

The row over rosters was behind a one-day strike by cabin crew last Friday which is estimated to have cost the airline €10m after more than 200 flights were cancelled and 30,000 passengers affected.