Aer Lingus cancels more flights as Covid outbreak among staff continues

Aer Lingus cancelled five return flights on Wednesday to Britain and Germany as it continued to deal with a Covid outbreak among workers.

The Irish carrier said it has been wrestling with the fallout from a surge in virus cases that hit crews for the past 10 days.

On Wednesday, Aer Lingus confirmed it dropped five return services — 10 flights from Dublin — as the problem continued.

The flights hit included two services between Dublin and Heathrow, and one each between the capital and Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich.

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Aer Lingus has consistently maintained it does not intend to cancel flights, but has also cautioned the conditions prompting these decisions remain.

The carrier did not axe any flights on Tuesday this week, but has done so on most days since the Covid outbreak became an issue the weekend before last.

Aer Lingus apologised to the affected passengers and said staff were working to reaccommodate them on the next available service as quickly as possible.

European Union laws oblige airlines to reaccommodate or refund passengers whose flights are cancelled. Aer Lingus said it has informed all those hit of their rights.

Aer Lingus aims to restore 90 per cent of pre-Covid traffic this year. The company said it built in “appropriate buffers” to deal with reasonable extra disruption.

However, it argues that pressures across air travel’s international networks are creating considerable challenges that the Covid spike among crews is compounding.