AER LINGUS HAS been forced to cancel more than a dozen flights this weekend following a continued “spike in Covid cases” and industrial action at a French Airport.

The cancellations by the airline include three return flights today and three return flights tomorrow.

A statement said that ground handling industrial action at Lyon Airport has required the cancellation of two return flights to Lyon today.

“Just over one percent of Aer Lingus flights have been impacted by cancellations in June.

“Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those impacted and teams at the airline are working to re-accommodate impacted passengers on the next available services as efficiently as possible.

“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,” the airline said. 

The affected flights in France are from Dublin to Lyon and back EI550 and EI551, and EI552 and EI553.

There are also Saturday flights cancelled for Dublin to Amsterdam and back EI610 and EI611.

The London Gatwick to Knock and back to London Gatwick EI911 and EI912 are also cancelled. 

Also affected is the Dublin to London Gatwick flight EI232 and London Gatwick-Dublin EI237.

For Sunday the Aer Lingus flights cancelled due to Covid-19 cases among staff are Dublin to Lisbon to Dublin EI482 and EI483.

The Dublin to Malpensa, Italy to Dublin flights EI436 and EI437 as well as Dublin-Amsterdam-Dublin flights EI610/EI61 also not flying. 

Aer Lingus said that they had shared the rights of passengers in such situations on their website. 

EU regulations mean that passengers on these flights are entitled to full refunds from the airline or they compel the airline to facilitate them on another flight which may involve a need for paid hotels and food. They can also claim for phone calls and emails.