AER LINGUS has announced restricted services only on some of its North Atlantic and cross Channel routes if the pilots' strike goes ahead at midnight on Sunday. However, it says that the company is confident "that close to capacity services will be provided" on its scheduled flights to New York, London Heathrow and major continental European destinations.
The airline has put notices in today's newspapers giving details of the restricted services. It is providing helplines for customers and asks them for their "understanding over the next few days in particular, as we seek to avert the threat of disruption to our services and finalise our arrangements should this not be possible."
Last night the company's director of corporate affairs, Mr Dan Loughrey, said management had little choice but to make contingency plans. But he also stressed the company was committed to solving the dispute.
This morning the Aer Lingus group of unions will hold an emergency meeting at Dublin Airport to consider the implications of the pilots' strike. The pilots have not so far asked for and all out picket, and one of the key issues for discussion is likely to: be the level of support within the airline and its subsidiary, TEAM, for the strike.
At present the main Aer Lingus union, SIPTU, and the craft unions in TEAM are pursuing pay claims of their own. In the case of the TEAM workers there is a meeting at the Labour Relations Commission next week to discuss the company's refusal to pay a deferred 2.5 per cent pay rise due last July.
The pilots' representatives met the LRC for two hours yesterday to outline their case. The chairman of the Aer Lingus pilots' group in the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association (IALPA), Mr Dermot Rafferty, said afterwards that they were glad of the opportunity to put their case.
He called on the company to avail of the LRC's services as well to help avert a strike. However, it is understood there are no arrangements, as yet, for Aer Lingus to meet the commission.
The pilots also met the Fianna Fail spokesman on labour affairs, Mr Tom Kitt. He said he was pessimistic about prospects of a resolution and called for "a fundamental review of industrial relations in the company".