Aer Lingus accused of ‘arrogance’ for failure to attend Oireachtas Committee

The chief executive of Aer Lingus Lynne Embleton has been criticised at the Oireachtas Transport Committee for refusing to attend a hearing to discuss problems with flight cancellations and delays.

At the start of the transport Committee’s meeting on Wednesday, chairman Kieran O’Donnell said Ms Embleton had been invited to attend “but has refused to do so”. He said the committee wanted to discuss very serious issues affecting the public and the refusal was “unacceptable”. He said invitation would be reissued and he expected Ms Embleton to attend on Wednesday next.

Mr O’Donnell said the committee was anxious to begin a body of work on a review of the national aviation strategy and the committee was “here to assist” in solving problems in the aviation industry.

Individual members of the committee also spoke of their “disappointment” that Aer Lingus had refused to attend, given the problems with cancellations and impending difficulties over the summer with planned restrictions at London’s Heathrow airport.

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Senator Jerry Buttimer accused Aer Lingus of “arrogance” and said the committee was held “in contempt” by the airline management. He read into the record an email from an Aer Lingus passenger he said he had received early on Wednesday morning.

The email writer whom he did not name, claimed to have been kept sitting on a USA bound flight for three hours at Dublin on Tuesday, before passengers were told the flight would not be taking place. The writer, who was not named by the Senator, said accused Aer Lingus of not giving passengers adequate information, sending them away and telling them to await an email. The writer said he still had no information on when he might complete his journey, and he accused the airline of “incompetence” and a “lack of concern” for passengers.

Ruairí Ó Murchú TD said the refusal of Aer Lingus to attend, given the circumstances passengers were experiencing was “disgraceful”. He said people are trying buy tickets which avoided Aer Lingus flights to avoid long delays.

Mr O’Donnell said the committee would be making a further statement on the issue later on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus told The Irish Times that representatives were unable to attend due to “unavoidable existing commitments”.

“Aer Lingus offered to attend a committee meeting at a later date and to answer in writing any specific questions that the committee had in advance of that meeting,” she added.