Trade union officials representing Aer Lingus pilots were set to meet with the company today amid threats of strike action.
Officials from the IMPACT union were to confront Aer Lingus bosses at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) after a ballot last week showed overwhelming support for strike action over redundancies.
LRC chief executive Mr Kieran Mulvey invited both sides to the talks after IMPACT said there would be a one-day walkout on February 11th.
Mr Mulvey has said his initial aim was to set out the respective positions of the two sides and explore options for further talks.
A huge 97 per cent of the 489 pilots who voted were in favour of industrial action, claiming that redundancy packages offered to them under the company "survival plan" were unfair compared to those offered to other staff.
The firm says it needs to shed a further 80 pilots, but there are no more takers for the redundancy package.
The pilots are also protesting about the issuing of 10 compulsory redundancy notices to junior pilots.
PA