Aer Lingus pilots have begun industrial action in an ongoing dispute with the airline over pay. Members of the Irish Air Line Pilot's Association (IALPA) began an indefinite work-to-rule at midnight on Wednesday. An eight-hour strike is planned for Saturday. Separate meetings on Tuesday at the Labour Court in Dublin involving the IALPA and Aer Lingus failed to reach a resolution. The airline said it is disappointed the Labour Court did not intervene in the dispute but will instead review the matter in July. "Aer Lingus will continue to focus on minimising the disruption caused to customers by IALPA’s industrial action," it said in a statement to Irish broadcaster RTÉ. The airline said it "has made it clear that it remains available for discussions both directly and through the State’s industrial relations framework”. The total number of flights cancelled as a result of the industrial action, Aer Lingus said, has now risen to 270. It called on IALPA to "consider the damage that its continued industrial action is inflicting upon passengers, the company and the Irish economy”.<br/>
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Spain's Volotea said on Tuesday it was teaming up with Abra, which owns Colombian airline Avianca and Brazil's GOL, to take over slots that IAG pledged to hand over in order to get approval for its merger with Air Europa. The deal does not involve any changes to their shareholding structure, Volotea CEO Carlos Munoz said, adding that there was no cost involved for the joint venture partners. Volotea and Abra seek to apply for all the slots that would be handed over if the merger between IAG and Air Europa is approved, Munoz told a news conference in Madrid.<br/>The partnership seeks to optimise the set of remedies with the integration of a long-haul and a short-haul network, he added. Abra CEO Adrian Neuhauser said the joint venture did not require authorisation from anti-trust authorities, since the two airline groups do not compete directly. "The joint venture structure will allow the companies to offer a unified product to clients both in Europe and the Americas, providing connectivity between their respective networks with a single ticket," they said in a joint statement. British Airways and Iberia owner IAG is paying E400m to Spanish tourism group Globalia for the 80% of Air Europa it does not already own.<br/>
UNI Air and Mandarin Airlines, two of Taiwan's main airlines for domestic flights, said Tuesday that extreme weather conditions and bird strikes are causing increased flight disruption. At a panel discussion during the 2024 International Aviation Safety Management Summit in Taipei, UNI Air Chairman Solomon Lin said only 55% of the airline's flights between Nankan and Beigan townships in Matsu County were dispatched during the first half of the year. This indicated that almost half of the flights were canceled due to thick fog or other visibility problems, Lin said. Regarding bird strikes, Lin said that UNI Air had experienced a total of 16 overhauls or airplane blade damages due to bird strikes since 2015. While Taiwan's airports have measures to drive away birds before taking off and landing, Lin hoped that the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) could comprehensively research the area's bird ecology. Mandarin Airlines President Chang Cheng-hao said the airline encountered eight bird strikes in the first half of the year, adding that it was a hidden operation risk, especially in Taichung and Penghu County. Chang said that most domestic routes fly on ATR aircraft models, with around 35 minutes for preparation between flights. This means that the airline crew needs to operate under time pressure, with additional issues of weather and cabin crew exhaustion.<br/>