Aer Lingus customers scrambling to find flights to replace cancelled seats are reporting high prices from chief alternative Ryanair but the competitor airline rejects accusations of opportunistic profiting.
Almost 400 flights have been cancelled by Aer Lingus as members of Ialpa (Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association) prepare to begin their fourth day of a strict work to rule.
The pilots’ body, which is taking industrial action over a pay claim, also plans to strike for eight hours on Saturday.
The cancellation of Aer Lingus flights is driving up fares elsewhere, which are already high during peak season, as the last remaining seats are snapped up.
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For example, passengers trying to get to Malaga – one of the routes affected by the Aer Lingus cancellations – found on Friday that a return Ryanair trip from Dublin, without baggage costs, to the Spanish destination next week ranged from €431 to €629.
Some holidaymakers reported Ryanair prices rising in the immediate aftermath of Ialpa’s work to rule announcement.
One customer who was keeping an eye on return flights to Liverpool from Dublin said they cost €68 just two weeks ago, rising to over €200 since the pilots’ body’s work-to-rule announcement.
Separately, once the strike threatened an Aer Lingus customer’s plans to fly to Rome next week, he booked an alternative flight through Ryanair in mid-June which came to €72.
Those same Ryanair flights stood at €244 on Friday, an increase of just under 250 per cent in two weeks, the customer pointed out.
Ryanair said, however, “contrary to some false social media claims” it had not increased its fares due to the industrial action.
The airline’s fares, like others, are not set but driven by algorithms primarily dictated by demand and flight capacity, according to industry experts.
Ryanair has added tranches of extra flights to popular holiday destinations, including Malaga and the Portuguese resort of Faro.
However, the airline does not have enough capacity to cover all of its competitor’s cancelled flights, says travel writer and owner of trade publication TravelExtra Eoghan Corry.
“Ialpa knows that. It’s not like Ryanair can step in and take the Aer Lingus business, they don’t have the spare aircraft,” he said.
Corry said holidaymakers were being “fleeced” as they scramble to make last-minute plans. But he explained the prices are a knock-on effect of the industrial action.
The tactics used by the pilots’ body aim to cause “maximum distress to passengers”, he said.
“You need to scare the pants off passengers, you need to have people sobbing on Joe Duffy about a ruined wedding, that was the goal all along and that’s what they have achieved,” he said.
Though, whether the impact to date is enough to secure their demands, Corry remains unsure.
“The deal is always signed at the last minute, whether it will be signed on Saturday, I don’t know,” he said, believing the pilots’ association may have an appetite for further stoppages in July.
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