AER LINGUS HAS cancelled 12 flights to and from Dublin Airport today due to a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Six flights departing Dublin and the six corresponding return flights have been cancelled, with the airline saying it is trying to find alternative options for passengers to travel.
Additionally, a return flight to London Heathrow at 7.30am tomorrow is cancelled due to a “mandate from London Heathrow Airport Authority”, along with a morning flight to Hamburg and afternoon flight to Berlin.
They mark the latest in a spate of cancellations, most of which have been attributed so far to strikes by air traffic controllers in France and the Covid-19 virus.
The flights cancelled today were bound for destinations in Scotland, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The list of cancellations includes:
As well as the outbound flights, the subsequent flights returning to Dublin were also cancelled.
The Aer Lingus website offers three options for customers whose flight is cancelled, including a “new flight as soon as possible to your final destination”.
The other options are a flight at a later date subject to seat availaibility or a full refund of the ticket price within seven days. Refunds are available in cases where the cancellation is “for reasons within the control of the airline”.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said that “due to a spike in Covid cases, Aer Lingus has been forced to cancel six return flights from Dublin today”.
“Additionally, due to a mandate from London Heathrow Airport Authority, one return flight to Dublin Heathrow tomorrow, 30th June has also been cancelled.
“Our teams are working to secure alternative travel options for customers in each case and wish to apologise to those impacted for the inconvenience.”
Slightly more than 1% of Aer Lingus flights have been impacted by cancellations this month, according to the statement.
“Should crew illness require the cancellation of additional flights in the coming days, we will seek to re-accommodate passengers on the next available services as efficiently as possible,” the spokesperson said.
“Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built appropriate buffers into our plans in order to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption.
“System pressures and ongoing issues at some airports and among third party suppliers have created considerable operational challenges which have been compounded by a significant spike in Covid cases in recent days.”
In the last seven days, 13,584 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland through PCR tests.
Additionally, 17,640 positive antigen tests were registered on the HSE website.
As of this morning, there are 776 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals around Ireland, the highest number since mid-April.
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