Aer Lingus to cancel up to 20% of flights from Wednesday

Aer Lingus will cancel up to one in five flights from next Wednesday in response to planned industrial action by its pilots. Members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) plan a strict work to rule from June 26th in a move that could hit flights and passengers in their pursuit of a near 24% pay increase. The airline on Thursday said it will cancel between 10% and 20% of flights during the first five days of the action “to protect as many services as possible”. Donal Moriarty, its chief corporate affairs officer, confirmed that this would affect between 22 and 44 flights a-day and from 4,000 to 8,000 passengers. Aer Lingus has 220 flights daily, carrying 40,000 customers, at this time of year. The company will release details of the actual flights cancelled over the next two days. Most of them will be on routes connecting the Republic’s airports with Europe, but some transatlantic services may also be hit. “We want to emphasise that this is to protect as many of our services as possible,” Moriarty said.<br/>