Aer Lingus has cancelled a further 120 flights in a single day next Saturday ahead of an eight-hour pilot strike, affecting 15,000 customers. 

The airline said it had to cancel further flights due to the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association’s (IALPA) “escalation of the industrial action” by announcing an eight-hour strike on June 29th. 

IALPA told its members it would have an all-out strike from 5am to 1pm on Saturday, affecting 15,000 passengers. 

This brings the total number of flights cancelled so far to 244.  

Some 124 flights were already cancelled during the first five days of upcoming industrial action by pilots, starting on June 26th. 

Aer Lingus said it had re-timed long-haul flights on both 28th June and 29th June in order to avoid cancellations. 

Aer Lingus is automatically rebooking some customers onto alternative flights and has begun emailing all other customers informing them of the cancellations and advising them of their options. 

Aer Lingus pilots strike

IALPA members voted to take industrial action after demanding a 24% pay rise. 

The Labour Court previously recommended a pay rise of 9%, while Aer Lingus management offered 12.5% increases. 

Irish Travel Agents Association CEO Claire Dunne said the organisation has been in touch with customers over the “past two weeks” - but wasn’t able to rebook customers until flights were cancelled. 

“And then, of course, it's not just the flight, it's also the accommodation, the transfers,” she told The Anton Savage Show. 

She advised people to “sit tight” - and told people who are not flying in the next two weeks to hold off on contacting them while they assist customers with more immediate flights. 

“Try not to tie up the phone lines, because it is taking time away from the people who really need the help at this moment,” she said. 

Ms Dunne repeated the ITA’s calls for Aer Lingus and IALPA to “forget about all this rhetoric that's been thrown around” and “work out a solution”. 

“We all know that this dispute will be resolved eventually - so can they do it now and stop disrupting the travelling public?” she said. 

A stop sign at Dublin Airport with an Aer Lingus plan in the background. Image: RollingNews.ie

Aer Lingus Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty previously told Newstalk the pay rise demanded by IALPA is not “tenable”. 

Earlier this week IALPA President Captain Mark Tighe said Aer Lingus management hasn't given them a meaningful offer. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris has described it as “utterly reprehensible” that children due to go on holiday could be used as “pawns in an industrial relations dispute”.