AER Lingus flights are expected to operate normally today following the acceptance by the company and its pilots of a Labour Court settlement to their dispute. Staff were working through the night to ensure there was no disruption to services.
The task will be made significantly easier because only 8,000 of the 16,000 passengers who normally travel with Aer Lingus daily have booked seats on today's flights. The remainder have either deferred their journeys or transferred to other airlines.
"It's conceivable there won't he a 100 per cent service", an Aer Lingus spokesman said late last night, "about at this stage we are confident there will be." The first flight is the EI 372 due to leave Shannon for Dublin at 6.10 am. This is expected to leave on time, as is the first Dublin to Heathrow flight at 6.55 a.m. and the first Shannon to Heathrow flight at 8.55 a.m.
All subsequent flights are expected to be on schedule and to be operated by Aer Lingus crews and aircraft. Most of the aircraft being leased in to provide the alternative contingency schedule had not arrived by the time the threatened strike was called off at 7.45 p.m., just over four hours before the midnight deadline.
"Effectively, we are standing down the leased in aircraft," a company spokesman said. He added that Aer Lingus pilots were co operating fully in ensuring services returned to normal as quickly as possible.
The breakthrough in the dispute came alter the chairman of the Labour Court, Ms Evelyn Owens, sent copies of a settlement formula to both sides just before 5 p.m. The recommendation proposed that the company pay the pilots the first 5 per cent of a 17 per cent pay rise awarded to them by an independent tribunal from October 1st.
It also called on the pilots to call off their strike and urged both parties to meet immediately "to discuss and agree terms of reference for the appointment of an outside expert to examine and report on the future viability of the company in the context of the tribunal findings".
The court said that extra productivity given by the pilots, over and above that provided for in the Cahill Plan to rescue Aer Lingus, should be looked at, as well as the financial impact for the company of paying the full tribunal award.
The resolution of the dispute, which threatened to seriously disrupt services this week, was welcomed by the chief executive of Aer Lingus, Mr Gary McGann, and by the chairman of the Aer Lingus section of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association, Mr Dermot Rafferty, last night.
The company accepted the Labour Court recommendation "in its entirety", Mr McGann said.