Aer Lingus Regional pilots to hold one-day strike

Pilots at Aer Lingus Regional operator Emerald Airlines will halt work for one day ahead of the August Bank Holiday weekend in a move their union says could disrupt flights.

Members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), a branch of trade union Fórsa, are in dispute with Emerald over recognition, pay and conditions. The union has notified management that members will stop work from midnight Thursday, August 3rd, to midnight Friday, August 4th, the beginning of the bank holiday.

Members will also picket Emerald’s offices and at the Dublin Airport roundabout.

Emerald operates the Aer Lingus Regional network, connecting airports in Ireland, Britain, the Channel Islands and France.

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IALPA said the industrial action was a response to the airline’s failure to negotiate a collective agreement for pilots working for the carrier. Katie Morgan, Fórsa national secretary, said the action was likely to disrupt services but argued it was unavoidable. “We’ve advised management at Emerald that we reserve the right to review and escalate our industrial action up to and including an all-out strike.”

Daniel Langan, IALPA vice-president finance, said members at Emerald had shown enormous flexibility to ensure consistent and quality flight services, and had “expressed very clearly their preference for their trade union to negotiate on their behalf”.

Emerald maintains that it negotiates with staff through an employee representative group, which it says has won several deals for pilots.

“Fórsa and IALPA officials remain available for meaningful engagement aimed at resolving the current dispute,” Mr Langan pointed out.

He warned that further action was inevitable at Emerald without meaningful engagement.

Ms Morgan said the airline’s management had ignored repeated requests over several months to meet the union and begin talks on a collective agreement.

IALPA originally wrote to Emerald in April this year, and while the pair communicated the airline did not agree to meet or open talks on a collective deal. Emerald maintains that only a minority of its 160 pilots are members of the union.

Aer Lingus told IALPA in 2020 that it would require whichever airline got the contract to run its regional franchise from January 1st, 2023, to recognise and deal meaningfully with the union. Earlier this month Aer Lingus confirmed that it told all candidates for the regional services of the need for recognition and meaningful engagement with IALPA when it subsequently sought bids for the contract in late 2020.

Emerald and Aer Lingus agreed a deal for the regional service in 2021. The new franchisee began flying last year, ahead of the original start-date, as Government Covid travel curbs had forced the previous operator, Stobart, to cease trading.

Aer Lingus agreed to stipulate union recognition in return for a concession from IALPA in 2020 that allowed Stobart to operate from Belfast. Previously the agreement between the pair limited the service to bases in the Republic.

Belfast City Airport is now a key base for Emerald, and Aer Lingus Regional is one of the biggest airlines operating from there.