Aer Lingus defends Shannon flight cancellations

Aer Lingus has defended its decision to cancel more than 20 flights from Shannon Airport over the past two weeks.

It has been claimed such cancellations, affecting thousands of passengers, are doing irreparable damage to the airport.

The airline has repeatedly cancelled its New York and Boston services as well as the return legs since October 10 because of a shortage of aircraft. Some Heathrow flights were also dropped.

An Aer Lingus spokesman said: “These cancellations were due to a technical issue with one of our long-haul aircraft meaning we have not had sufficient aircraft available to operate our full long-haul schedule.

“When such instances necessitate the cancellation of flights we cancel the flights within our long-haul schedule which have the lowest number of bookings on that particular day. In that way we minimise the number guests whose travel plans are disrupted.”

Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley said recent scheduling decisions by Aer Lingus have caused significant hassle for passengers, and potentially damaged the reputation of Shannon Airport.

“This cannot happen again. Every flight and every passenger is crucial to Shannon Airport,” he said.