Covid forces Aer Lingus to cancel Boston and Chicago flights

Aer Lingus is cancelling four transatlantic flights on Tuesday as it continues to deal with a Covid outbreak among crews.

The airline dropped both the Dublin-Seattle service and the return flight on Monday over crew sickness while a technical issue forced it to axe both legs of its Dublin-Washingon service.

Aer Lingus also confirmed that on Tuesday it would cancel its Dublin-Chicago and Boston return services, a total of four flights in all, due to crew sickness.

A Covid outbreak among airline staff has hampered its operations this month, forcing it to cancel services on an almost daily basis.

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“The vast bulk of our schedule — over 98 per cent — has been operated, with just over 1 per cent of Aer Lingus flights impacted by cancellations in recent weeks,” said Aer Lingus late on Monday.

The carrier added that it was contacting affected passengers directly while staff were working to accommodate them on the next available services as efficiently as possible.

The company apologised to customers hit by the latest cancellations.

Passengers are entitled to alternative flights or cash refunds where airlines cancel flights. Aer Lingus informs customers of these entitlements when it has dropped their services.

The Irish carrier aims to restore 90 per cent of 2019 capacity in 2022 following two years of pandemic restrictions.

In a statement, Aer Lingus said it had anticipated that demand for travel would return as governments lifted Covid curbs, and built buffers into its plans that would allow it to deal with reasonable additional disruption. “However, a significant spike in Covid cases in recent weeks, combined with system pressures and ongoing issues at some airports and among third-party suppliers, have created considerable additional operational challenges,” the company said.

Industrial relations problems in Europe, including air-traffic control and airport staff strikes, have added to the airline’s woes in recent weeks.

Labour shortages and stretched resources across European and North American air transport networks have caused large-scale flight cancellations as holiday makers return to the skies in huge numbers this summer.