Strike threat to bank holiday flights fades as Aer Lingus Regional pilots enter talks

A strike that threatens to hit Aer Lingus Regional August bank holiday flights could be avoided after pilots agreed to meet management early next week.

Members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) at Emerald Airlines, which operates the Aer Lingus Regional service, planned a one-day strike on Friday August 4th in a dispute over trade union recognition.

Pilots were poised to lift the strike threat on Saturday after agreeing to accept an invitation from Emerald management to meet.

Trade union Fórsa, of which IALPA is a branch, confirmed that it wrote to Emerald proposing to meet on Monday “with a view to resolving the current dispute involving pilots at the company”.

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Katie Morgan, Fórsa national secretary, said that the union would agree to a temporary suspension of industrial action “to allow for meaningful engagement”.

The move could avert a strike that threatens to disrupt Aer Lingus Regional flights on the eve of the August bank holiday, one of the summer’s busiest weekends for travel.

Emerald is a separate company to Aer Lingus, but operates the larger airline’s regional services, connecting Belfast, Dublin and Cork with British, French and Channel Island airports, under a deal agreed in 2021.

The action will not affect flights operated by Aer Lingus itself, but could potentially hit passengers transferring between those services and regional routes.

Aer Lingus confirmed on Friday that it had met both sides in the dispute and expected them to resolve the row.

IALPA members at Emerald have been on a strict work-to-rule since June but moved to step up industrial action as the dispute dragged on.

The union originally sought a meeting with Emerald in April to discuss a collective agreement governing pay and conditions. While the company responded to IALPA, it did not agree to meet.

Emerald maintains that it deals with staff through an employee representative body that has already won “significant concessions” for pilots.

The airline also says that just one in three of its 160 pilots are union members.

Ms Morgan said on Saturday that the union remained committed to negotiating a collective agreement for pilots. She welcomed Emerald’s willingness to meet.

The airline wrote to the union Friday offering to meet after receiving notice the previous day of pilots’ intention to strike next weekend.

Pilots agreed to accept the invitation when they met late on Friday night to discuss the offer.

Emerald Airlines did not comment on Saturday. The company confirmed the previous day that it had written to IALPA/Fórsa offering to meet.