By Cate McCurry, PA
Aer Lingus returned to a full service on Wednesday after the airline had cancelled more than 600 flights in recent weeks over industrial action by its pilots.
Aer Lingus cancelled 25 flights on Monday and Tuesday, on top of the hundreds of other cancellations in the last three weeks.
The airline said it planned to operate its full schedule from Wednesday.
Last week, members of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) suspended a work-to-rule which began at the end of June.
It comes as the pilots are to be balloted on a 17.75 per cent deal following a recommendation from the Labour Court aimed at resolving a long-running dispute with Aer Lingus over pay.
The pay rises come across a period of 2022-2026.
Ialpa will hold a number of meetings with members and will carry out a ballot of pilots from Thursday for six days.
Aer Lingus welcomed a decision by Ialpa leadership to recommend the deal to its members.
“Aer Lingus welcomes the decision by IALPA to suspend industrial action,” it said.
“Prior to this announcement, it was necessary to cancel some flights to minimise disruption to customers scheduled to travel up to and including July 16.
“All affected customers have now been contacted and re-accommodated where possible on alternative flights.
“All Aer Lingus regional flights (operated by Emerald Airlines) and Aer Lingus UK transatlantic flights to and from Manchester continue to operate.
“We plan to operate our full schedule from July 17, the most up-to-date, on-day flight information can be found on our flight status tool or on the mobile app.
The pilots had initially sought a pay increase of 24 per cent, which they said equated to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.
Speaking last week, Ialpa president Mark Tighe said: “It is not quite the inflation that we were discussing but we’re looking at, two years from now, pilots will be 19.2% better off than they were – which is someways towards inflation.”
“We’re recommending it because we believe its a deal that the pilots can hopefully accept.”
