A third pilots' strike seems likely at Ryanair next Tuesday after talks between management and union representatives ended inconclusively.
The airline is also cancelling 600 of a total of more than 5,000 flights between Wednesday and Thursday of next week when Spanish, Portuguese and Belgian cabin crews will strike.
Members of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (Ialpa) – part of trade union Forsa – in Ryanair plan one-day strikes in the Republic on Friday, July 20th and Tuesday July 24th, in a dispute over base transfers, promotions, leave and other issues.
Both sides concede Friday’s action will go ahead, but hopes of averting Tuesday’s stoppage faded on Wednesday after a meeting of management and union ended without resolution.
Speaking after the meeting, Ialpa-Forsa spokesman, Niall Shanahan, described the talks as useful. "But there is no material change to the situation as it stands," he added.
Mr Shanahan explained that the sides needed to talk further and said that the union would contact Ryanair in coming days to organise another meeting.
Earlier he indicated that a considerable gap remained to be bridged between the two sides before Tuesday’s strike could be suspended.
Ialpa Fórsa has outlined 11 terms that it says must be the basis for any resolution of the dispute, which sparked the first ever strike by Ryanair’s Irish-based pilots last week.
However, Ryanair maintains that these conditions are unworkable for an airline with 87 international bases, and are only suitable for smaller carriers.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Patricia King and industrial officer Liam Berney were on the Ialpa Fórsa delegation.
Discussions
Ryanair wants to continue discussions and the suspension of all strikes. The airline has cancelled 24 flights between Ireland and Britain on Friday and is offering alternatives to the 4,000 customers affected. It is maintaining services to holiday destinations in Europe.
The airline has also cancelled 300 flights in Europe – not Ireland – on both Wednesday and Thursday of next week ahead of cabin crew strikes. Up to 50,000 of Ryanair’s 430,000 customers (12 per cent) on each of the two days will be hit.
The airline axed the flights a week in advance as it believes the stoppages will go ahead. It says it will re-accommodate or refund passengers whose flights will not take off.
Kenny Jacobs, the airline’s chief marketing officer, described the cabin crew action as “more protest than strike” as he said it related to general issues rather than specifics such as pay and conditions.
