Ryanair’s Irish pilots have said they will stage two more 24-hour strikes on Friday 20 and Tuesday 24 July in a row over employment procedures.
The airline cancelled 30 flights of its 290 flights from Ireland on 12 July during the first walk-out, which it says only accounted for 27 per cent of its pilots based in the country.
Members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) – part of the Forsa union – are demanding a “fair and transparent method” for determining base transfers, promotions and annual leave allocation that takes seniority into account.
Forsa claims Ryanair had rejected the suggestion that “third-party facilitation could assist in reaching consensus”. Although the union says it did find “common ground” with the airline’s management on establishing a joint working group to help with negotiations, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on setting up such a group.
In a statement, Ryanair said: “As we said in our memo today, we would encourage our pilots to take up our offer of a working group to resolve these issues, but if they wish to hold another unsuccessful strike again, then so be it. We will contact customers in due course when we receive details.”
Both strikes will begin at 0100 on each day unless an agreement is reached.
Ryanair is also facing strikes by cabin crew in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium on 25 and 26 July.