Aer Lingus pilots strike

Pilots say the strike is over new rotas

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Air travel out of Ireland is seriously disrupted after pilots with the country's national airline went on strike.

Only 3,000 of 20,000 intended passengers were able to catch their flights on Thursday due to the industrial action at Aer Lingus in response to new working hours.

The crisis escalated when the airline announced that the threat of further strikes would mean the cancellation of flights on Friday and Saturday, affecting 100,000 travellers.

Seven pilots have been suspended in recent days for failing to comply with new rosters and the airline has also stopped all pilots' wages in response to the strike action.

A skeleton service is being operated between London and Dublin, Cork and Shannon, and one transatlantic flight is going ahead.

Meanwhile, pilots staged a picket outside Dublin Airport and were set to hold a mass meeting later on Wednesday.

Noel Dowling, National Industrial Secretary of the trade union SIPTU, which represents ground staff at Aer Lingus, said the situation threatened the future of the airline.

He told the Press Association: "The predominant response amongst our members is one of dismay.

"There is a deep fear amongst our members now that the result of all this will be the complete collapse of Aer Lingus.

"The result of this may well be Aer Lingus being placed into receivership, and being bought out of it by a venture capital company which will then take back a much smaller number of people.

"At the moment, from my members' perspective, this is the reckless endangerment of their very future."

Dan Loughrey, corporate affairs director of Aer Lingus, added: "We are not gambling and we are not engaged in a high-stakes game.

"This is not about roster details and that has been a red herring for the past number of days. The issue we believe is about a failure to face up to change.

"We have no interest whatsoever in seeing the airline close. We very much regret the disruption for customers that has taken place today and that they are facing into over the next few days."

The action was taken when new work rosters were disputed by the pilots.

The new conditions were established under a company survival plan set up when the company suffered heavy financial losses in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Aer Lingus said the threat of further 24-hour strikes and the fallout from the strike made further groundings necessary. It is not yet known when normal operations would resume.

The airline said in a statement: "Aer Lingus regrets having to make this decision but it is unavoidable given the continuing uncertainty caused by the threat of further 24 hour stoppages and the ongoing refusal of the pilots to implement the arbitration rulings on the airline's survival plan."

A spokesman for the Impact trade union said: "The company is now threatening a lockout, which will indeed jeopardise the company's future and everybody's jobs.

"In reality, management have recklessly decided to inconvenience passengers, risk jobs, and jeopardise the airline's future in pursuit of unnecessary confrontation with pilots."