Aer Lingus has said the recent threat of strike action has caused “significant damage” to trading and future bookings.
The Irish airline warned annual operating profits will be 20 per cent lower than last year due to last month’s 24 hour strike and the threat of a two day strike next week – this has now been suspended pending further talks.
Aer Lingus said the downturn in business was “particularly noticeable” over the past week due to increased media coverage and commentary of the potential industrial action.
In a statement, the carrier said: "Aer Lingus welcomes the indication given last night by Impact, following an intervention by the Labour Court yesterday, to defer the further two days of strike action that had been called for 16 and 18 June 2014.
"This deferral is to allow consideration of an interim recommendation to be issued by the Labour Court today.
"However, the threat of this strike has caused significant damage to Aer Lingus' trading and forward bookings for several months into the future.”
Aer Lingus said it will continue to engage with union group Impact, under the guidance of the Labour Court to resolve the matter without further strikes.
The long-running dispute centres on the issue of staffing rosters. Cabin crew want a 'five days on, three days off' rosters, which is worked by pilots.
Aer Lingus said it was willing to introduce 5:3 rosters on short-haul services, but said it was unwilling to implement such working practices on a trial basis and warned they must be “cost-neutral”.
That would mean a lot of features introduced into current rosters around “lifestyle requests” would have to go.
Impact claims it was given a "take-it-or-leave-it" proposal and that’s why it walked away from negotiations.
The union have called current cabin crew roster patterns “erratic”, “unpredictable” and “subject to changes at very short notice”.