Aer Lingus has announced that all flights will now be grounded until Monday and bookings have been suspended until Wednesday. The company had earlier grounded all flights tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday, with the airline's board meeting this evening to discuss today's one-day pilot strike.
The company earlier expressed 'grave concern' at today's one-day pilot's strike. The airline's unilateral cancellation of flights has drawn criticism from the IMPACT trade union which accused the company of adopting 'bullying tactics'.
Both parties, Aer Lingus and the pilot's union IMPACT have accepted an invitation to attend a meeting of the National Implementation Body to discuss the dispute.
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The dispute centers on the refusal by seven Aer Lingus pilots, on grounds of safety, to operate a new work roster proposed by the company.
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman earlier told ireland.comthey were reviewing the situation on a day-to-day basis.
Aer Lingus is running a skeleton service using hired aircraft, but of the 20,000 people scheduled to fly today, only about 3,000 will be able to travel.
The spokeswoman said: "Everything operated as scheduled this morning. Flights came in from the US and the flights to the UK went as planned". She also said that things are quiet at the airport at the moment, with only those scheduled to travel on today's skeleton service showing up.
The implications of tonight's announcement are that all services tomorrow (Friday), Saturday and Sunday have been cancelled and bookings have been suspended until at least next Wednesday and that thousands of travellers will inevitably be inconvenienced. It is estimated that the stoppages will cost the airline an estimated €2 million per day.
About 300 striking staff staged a picket this afternoon at the roundabout at the entrance to Dublin Airport. A mass meeting was held later in the day.
Today's work stoppage is in protest at the suspension of seven pilots who refused to accept new work practices proposed by independent consultants as part of the struggling airline's survival plan.
Their union, IMPACT, accuses the company of bullying tactics over its decision to ground flights over the coming days. There was no reason the airline could not fly from tomorrow onwards and no further strike action was planned. Therefore the plan amounted to a "lock-out", IMPACT said in a statement.
Intending passengers are advised to contact their travel agent or call the Aer Lingus helpline on 1800-222221. For passengers booked on Friday's flights the Aer Lingus helpline is 0818-365000.
If calling from Britain, the number is 0845-0844444, and in America it is 1-800-IRISH-AIR.