Aer Lingus workers to discuss Manchester-US flights with management

Aer Lingus workers will raise the airline’s plans to fly from Manchester Airport in Britain to the US from next summer at a meeting on Wednesday.

The Irish company’s recently established subsidiary, Aer Lingus (UK) Ltd, is seeking a foreign carrier’s permit from the US authorities and a British licence to allow it fly to Boston, Florida and New York, from Manchester in 2021.

Trade union Fórsa, which represents pilots and cabin crew at the airline, will raise the plans during talks with Aer Lingus management scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

Fórsa’s acting head of services and enterprises Ashley Connolly is meeting the company to discuss several issues, including the Manchester plan.

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Formal talks

Aer Lingus opened bases at Washington in the US and London Gatwick in the past. On both occasions, it agreed deals with Fórsa in advance. The union is likely to seek the same terms for the Manchester plan.

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, a Fórsa affiliate, is understood to have had some technical discussions with Aer Lingus on the proposal, but the parties have not yet had formal talks.

Fórsa raised the issue with the airline recently. Management responded that the move had not yet been confirmed and remained as a business proposal to Aer Lingus’s parent, International Airlines’ Group.

Market gap

It emerged last week that Aer Lingus plans to move two Airbus A330s currently based in the Republic, and asign two new A321 long-range craft, timed for delivery in the spring, to Manchester.

From there it intends flying to Boston, New York JFK Airport and Orlando, Florida, beginning in the summer.

Aer Lingus hopes to cash in on a gap in the market left by airline and travel agent Thomas Cook’s collapse in September 2019, according to its application to the US department of transportation for a foreign carrier’s permit.

The airline specifically set up the UK subsidiary to operate the services and to seek the relevant licences from the British and US regulators.

It is applying for the US permit under the terms of an air travel agreement struck by Washington and Westminster ahead of Brexit on January 1st.

UK airlines are currently allowed into the US under the open skies treaties agreed between that jurisdiction and the EU.