Aer Lingus management and representatives of its pilots will engage in intensive talks next week aimed at resolving the row over the establishment of a new base in Belfast.
Talks on the current row, which had threatened to ground the airline's fleet for two days this week, were adjourned at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday afternoon.
The discussions lasted more than four hours.
The parties had previously spent two hours in talks at the commission on Monday evening.
Speaking as he left the talks yesterday, the assistant general secretary of the trade union Impact, Michael Landers, said that he was optimistic that a solution could be reached.
The Labour Relations Commission has asked the parties not to comment publicly on the current talks. However, it is understood that significant issues between management and the union remain to be fully addressed.
Sources close to the talks said that the parties had spent some time exploring the issues involved and that substantive discussions would get under way next week.
The row centres on whether the Irish Airline Pilots' Association and Impact should have a role in negotiating the pay and conditions for pilots recruited at the new base in Belfast.
Aer Lingus management has argued in the course of the current dispute that the union and the pilots' association should not be involved in such negotiations relating to bases outside the Republic.
The pilots said before they entered the current talks that they believed, based on correspondence from the company,that Aer Lingus had changed its position on this issue.
However, Aer Lingus said that it had not changed its stance.
Relatively vague language in the letter issued by Aer Lingus management on Sunday night inviting the pilots to talks on their concerns at how the new Belfast operation could affect their conditions and bargaining capacity in the Republic allowed both sides the room to read what they wanted into the wording.
One informed source said yesterday that the "fudge" had allowed the parties the scope to enter talks at the Labour Relations Commission.
The talks between the parties will resume on Monday morning.
Dates on Thursday and Friday of next week have also been scheduled for further talks at the commission.
The union has claimed that pilots recruited in Belfast would be on worse terms and conditions than those that apply in the Republic.
Aer Lingus has said that pilots in Belfast would receive higher salaries, at least on the early part of the pay scale, although they would not be allowed access to the existing defined benefit pension scheme.
Pilots in Belfast would also be expected to operate under new and more flexible working conditions.
