THE PROSPECT of disruption for tens of thousands of Aer Lingus passengers from tomorrow remained last night as talks aimed at averting industrial action by pilots continued at the Labour Relations Commission.
Attempts by the airline to hire in aircraft to offset the effects of the threatened industrial action were largely unsuccessful at the weekend. The company said efforts to find alternative travel arrangements for passengers would continue, “but all we can offer now is a full refund”.
Ryanair said it would not be in a position to “wet lease” aircraft to Aer Lingus as all 260 aircraft in its fleet were flying. Wet lease of an aircraft is an arrangement whereby the lessor provides at least some crew.
Talks aimed at securing a settlement between pilots and management over rosters broke down on Saturday morning. However, the commission invited the parties to further discussions which got under way last night.
The talks resumed shortly after it had emerged the row was spreading to the bases operated by Aer Lingus in Belfast and in Gatwick in the UK. Pilots in both bases have voted for industrial action.
Arriving at the talks last night both sides appeared hopeful a resolution could be found. Aer Lingus’s head of human resources, Michael Grealy, said the company was there “to do business”.
“We are here to make sure that Aer Lingus can fly this week.”
Michael Landers, assistant general secretary of trade union Impact, of which the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association is a branch, said: “We are back in at the invitation of the commission, so it is a question of seeing what the company has to say. We were still some distance away from a solution but obviously the commission feels that there are prospects of further progress.”
Aer Lingus had warned that the planned industrial action could effectively lead to the grounding of the airline from tomorrow. It had said its regional services as well as its routes from Belfast and its Washington-Madrid flights would not be affected.
However, Mr Landers said last night notice had been served regarding industrial action in Belfast and Gatwick. These disputes were separate to the row over rosters involving pilots in Dublin and Cork (although roster issues play a part in these disputes also). He signalled that if a resolution could be found it would encompass all of the disputes.
The dispute centres on the rosters for pilots, over the summer period and in the longer term. The pilots’ association has argued that existing rosters are excessively onerous and pilots may get only one day off after working five or six days, which it claims is due to an overall shortage of pilots. Management has maintained the problem is pilot productivity.