Both sides in the pay dispute between Aer Lingus pilots and management have accepted an invitation from the Labour Court to attend a meeting on Monday.
RTE News is reporting the invitation was issued this afternoon to the parties asking them to come to the court’s offices.
Aer Lingus has welcomed the development and confirmed its representatives will be attending.
Forsa, the parent of IALPA, said it had also accepted the invitation, saying that the “outcome of any Labour Court process will be crucial”.
“The union takes the view that we are at a critical point in this dispute,” it said.
“Should it fail, we are looking at a situation much worse than it is at present and a greater likelihood of escalating industrial action.”
It comes as another 122 flight cancellations were announced for next week as a result of the ongoing industrial action at the airline.
The latest tranche of cancelled flights are from Wednesday 3 July to Sunday 7 July and follow 270 cancelled flights from last Wednesday up to Tuesday 2 July arising from the work to rule by pilots and their planned eight-hour work stoppage tomorrow.
Aer Lingus said it was taking the step in order to continue to protect as many services as possible.
“These cancellations will be implemented today, and details will be communicated to impacted customers,” it said in a statement.
The airline added that those passengers impacted could either change their flights for free or claim a refund or voucher.
“These options will be communicated directly to impacted customers as well as travel agents, while the Aer Lingus ‘Travel Advisory’ page will also have up to the minute information on all the options,” it said.
“Aer Lingus fully understands the anxiety being experienced by customers given the uncertainty caused by IALPA’s industrial action and is giving impacted customers as many options as possible,” it added.
All Aer Lingus Regional flights, which are operated by Emerald Airlines, as well as Aer Lingus UK transatlantic flights to and from Manchester will operate as scheduled.
A full list of the impacted flights can be found on the Aer Lingus website.
Read the full report on www.rte.ie
