The head of Ireland’s agents’ association has urged Aer Lingus’s pilots to accept a near 20% pay uplift to end weeks of industrial action, which the association says has already impacted more than 80,000 passengers.
Clare Dunne, chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association (ITAA), has once again called on both Aer Lingus and the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) to settle their pay dispute and to put customers "at the centre of the agenda".
It comes after Ireland’s labour court on Monday (8 July) put forward a recommendation of a 17.75% pay increase for Aer Lingus’s Irish based pilots – well above the approximately 9% offered by Aer Lingus earlier this year but shy of the 24% sought by Ialpa.
The long-running dispute saw Ialpa’s Aer Lingus pilot members embark on an indefinite period of industrial action in the form of a strict work-to-rule policy starting on 26 June. It has so far resulted in the cancellation of nearly 550 flights.
Aer Lingus has accepted the labour court’s recommendation, which covers a four-year period backdated from 1 January 2023 to the end of December 2026. Ialpa will meet on Tuesday (9 July) to discuss the offer and whether to put it to its members.
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