ABOUT 2,600 Aer Lingus passengers are set to face disruptions today following the cancellation of 34 flights as a result of the current dispute with cabin crew.
The flight cancellations mark the highest level of disruption faced by passengers since the dispute over new rosters began on Monday.
The flights cancelled by the airline are all on European routes.
The airline said that trans-atlantic services would operate normally.
Up until late yesterday evening 82 cabin crew staff had been removed from their duties and the Aer Lingus payroll for refusing to co-operate with the new rosters.
Meanwhile almost 50 other cabin crew staff have been called to meetings with management and could potentially be removed from the payroll.
The company said last night that overall 130 cabin crew members were refusing to co-operate with the new rosters.
The trade union Impact has referred the dispute to the Labour Court. However, Aer Lingus said it did not see any scope for further talks. The company’s head of human resources, Michael Greally, said that any attempt by the union to engage in further conciliation would “represent a cynical attempt to backtrack” on the requirements to increase flying hours for cabin crew to 850 a year.
The union maintained that the new rosters introduced by the airline were excessively onerous, anti-family and not needed to meet targets of increasing flying hours to 850 a year. It said that cabin crew had accepted the requirement to increase flying hours to 850 a year under the company’s overall cost-saving plan known as “Greenfield”.
However, the union said that members had not voted to accept the new rosters introduced unilaterally by management.
In a statement released last night the airline said it “sincerely regrets” the flight cancellations and blamed Impact for the disruption. “The sole responsibility for these cancellations, and the corresponding disruption to customers’ travel plans, lies with Impact trade union members who continue to take industrial action despite 15 months of negotiation, agreement, clarification, conciliation and binding arbitration,” the statement read.
The flight cancellations today affect 17 European routes to and from Dublin airport. All transatlantic Aer Lingus flights as well as those departing from Shannon, Cork, Belfast and London Gatwick are planned to operate as scheduled.
The affected routes and flight numbers are: EI 202 Dublin to Manchester and EI 203 Manchester to Dublin; EI 262 Dublin to Birmingham and EI 263 Birmingham to Dublin; EI 562 Dublin to Barcelona and EI 563 Barcelona to Dublin; EI 630 Dublin to Brussels and EI 631 Brussels to Dublin; EI 520 Dublin to Paris and EI 521 Paris to Dublin; EI 692 Dublin to Dusseldorf and EI 693 Dusseldorf to Dublin; EI 330 Dublin to Berlin and EI 331 Berlin to Dublin; EI 154 Dublin to London Heathrow and EI 155 London Heathrow to Dublin; EI 604 Dublin to Amsterdam and EI 605 Amsterdam to Dublin; EI 552 Dublin to Lyons and EI 553 Lyons to Dublin; EI 392 Dublin to Hamburg and EI 393 Hamburg to Dublin; EI 484 Dublin to Lisbon and EI 485 Lisbon to Dublin; EI 656 Dublin to Frankfurt and EI 657 Frankfurt to Dublin; EI 664 Dublin to Vienna and EI 665 Vienna to Dublin; EI 648 Dublin to Zurich and EI 649 Zurich to Dublin; EI 176 Dublin to London Heathrow and EI 177 London Heathrow to Dublin; EI 256 Dublin to Edinburgh and EI 257 Edinburgh to Dublin.
The airline said it would endeavour to operate 46 round-trip European flights from Dublin today. However, it advised that further disruptions to the flight schedule could occur. It said that it would hire in aircraft where possible to maintain services.