Aer Lingus was Tuesday served with notice of industrial action by its pilots. The latest in a series of standoffs between airline staff and management is again linked to the issue of crew rostering.
Aer Lingus has warned that the situation could lead to flight delays and even cancellations, though there were no specifics of any possible disruptions at pressitme.
From Tuesday of next week, according to an Irish Indpependent report, pilots based in Dublin and Cork will not work on rostered free days or annual leave days. They will also report for duty one hour later than their rostered report times.
"This withdrawal of flexibility will destroy our ability to operate a proper schedule as we will miss our airport slot times, parking stands, gate positions and will be unable to fulfill flight connections for customers," said Aer Lingus chief executive, Christoph Mueller.
"In addition, pilot and cabin crew operational duties will be out of sync which may result in cabin crew having insufficient hours to operate all flights. This may lead to a full cancellation of operations from Tuesday," he said.
