Irish travellers are facing huge disruption as Ryanair pilots prepare to go on strike.

Ryanair members of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) are set to strike for two days at the end of this month and for three days between the 2nd and 4th of September.

Meanwhile, the result of a ballot of 170 of the airline’s Irish-based pilots is expected to tomorrow.

Should they, as expected, vote for strike action, thousands of Irish passengers could face flight cancellations.

"Serious impact"

John Spollen, President of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) said he hopes any strikes can be avoided.

“That could have a serious impact because of the time of year the threatened strike is planned for which is 48 hours starting on Thursday the 22nd of August and the 23rd of August which, as we know, is coming towards the end of the holiday season.

“Schools are coming back; passengers are coming home and some of them will be flying out on short weekend breaks just before the school season starts.”

Ryanair

Announcing the strike yesterday BALPA said that, after decades of refusing to recognise unions, Ryanair does not know how to work with them and lacks “a number of standard agreements that any union would reasonably expect in any workplace.”

It said pilots the dispute centres on issue including pensions, loss of license insurance, maternity benefits, allowances and pay.

General Secretary Brian Strutton said: “We have had no formal offer from Ryanair and it is imperative that we resolve this dispute urgently to avoid strike action.”

“No pilot wants to spoil the public’s travel plans but at the moment it seems we have no choice.”

"Very worrying"

Fianna Fáil said the looming dispute is “very worrying” for tourists.

“I think as with all industrial disputes, clearly there will be a resolution and I would urge dialogue in the short term so that we can avert these strikes,” he said.

In a statement Ryanair said it had written to BALPA to ask it to return to talks.

“We apologise sincerely to customers for any uncertainty that BALPA’s ballot may cause them,” it said.

“We hope BALPA will now work with Ryanair to minimise job losses instead of undertaking ill-judged and ill-timed industrial action.”

The industrial disputes come just a week after Ryanair announced a 21% fall in profits and said up to 900 jobs were at risk.