AER LINGUS HAS cancelled an additional 76 flights between next Monday and Wednesday due to what it called the “highly disruptive impact” of ongoing industrial action being taken by the union representing its pilots. 

The cancellations come ahead of a Labour Court meeting this afternoon between the airline and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) in an effort to resolve the ongoing pay dispute between them. 

In a statement, Aer Lingus said: “In order to continue to protect as many services as possible from the continuing and highly disruptive impact of IALPA’s continuing industrial action, Aer Lingus has had to take the step of cancelling 76 additional flights over the course of Monday 8th July to Wednesday 10th July (inclusive).”

It said the cancellations will be implemented today and details will be communicated to impacted customers. Impacted customers will be given the option to change their flights for free or claim a refund or voucher.

A list of the cancelled flights can be found here.

After facilitating eight hours of discussions on Monday, the Labour Court decided to use its authority to have a formal meeting. Both sides will make presentations at the hearing, after which the court will issue a recommendation.

The industrial dispute body has asked that there be no escalation in the pilots’ industrial action as their work-to-rule industrial action remains in place.

The pilots, represented by IALPA, are in the midst of industrial action after negotiations over a pay increase with Aer Lingus reached an impasse.

An eight-hour strike was also held on Saturday, during which hundreds of pilots marched around Dublin Airport, holding signs that read “two years talking, deal now” and “no pilots, no profits”.

Aer Lingus has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights as a result of the industrial dispute, with thousands of passengers affected. 

The pilots are seeking a pay increase of 24%, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.

However, IALPA said it would be willing to consider a lower pay increase during a meeting with the airline at a hotel last week.

But it accused Aer Lingus of not making a similar compromise to move from its offer of 12.25%, without requests for pilots to improve productivity.

If these rounds of talks fail, IALPA said it would return to consider an escalation of its industrial action.

An interim Labour Court recommendation for pay increases of 9.25% was rejected by IALPA members last month, who then decided to pursue industrial action.