Aer Lingus said last night it was examining the possibility of putting in place a limited service next Tuesday using aircraft and crews brought in from abroad.
The airline's commercial director, Enda Corneille, said the level of service and the routes to be operated would depend on the number and type of aircraft available.
Nearly 500 Aer Lingus pilots, members of the trade union Impact, plan to strike on Tuesday and Wednesday in protest at what they claim is a plan to hire pilots at the airline's new base in Belfast on less favourable terms than those applying to existing staff.
Mr Corneille said company executives were working on the contingency plan last night, and that further news should be available today. Third-party intervention aimed at heading off the planned strike appeared unlikely last night.
Mr Corneille said he believed that the strike would go ahead.
Impact assistant general secretary Michael Landers said intervention by a third party seemed unlikely at this stage.
Aer Lingus said up to 50,000 passengers could face disruption next week if the strike went ahead.
It said pay rates for aircraft captains and first officers in Belfast would be higher at the early points of the scale at least than those on offer in the South. It said it had not decided finally on pay rates higher up the scale.
However, the new pilots will not have access to the existing defined-benefit pension scheme. Aer Lingus wants to put in place a separate defined-contribution scheme for its Belfast pilots.
It is also seeking greater flexibility in work practices in Belfast which would be governed by EU minimum regulations on flying and by its schedule rather than by the collective agreements reached with the union in Dublin.
Meanwhile, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary yesterday called the Aer Lingus pilots "headbangers" and said he supported Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion, in the dispute.
Speaking at a press conference in Shannon, he said: "The idea that these headbangers in Dublin would suddenly go on strike for two days next week simply because Aer Lingus is opening up a new base is absurd.
"I am 110 per cent four square behind Dermot Mannion and the management of Aer Lingus in telling those overpaid, underworked peacocks go rotate," he said."Ryanair has opened up 22 bases in Europe in the last seven years. We have local pay and conditions at every one of those 22 bases. No pilots' union has ever told us 'there's got to be some worldwide terms and conditions'."
Employers' group Ibec said the planned two-day strike represented a clear example of "opportunism of the worst kind", which it said was aimed at causing maximum disruption to the travelling public whilst seeking to impose a veto on change in the airline.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation called on the pilots to call off the strike.