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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Alison O'Reilly

Ryanair and Aer Lingus update on July travel for Irish holidaymakers amid flight cancellations and strikes

Ryanair chiefs have said strikes in Spain will have little effect on flights for Irish passengers.

Spanish cabin crew for the airline have warned they plan to strike for a further 12 days this month.

Any passengers' whose flights are disrupted will be put on the next available flights.

Dara Brady, Director of Marketing with Ryanair, said he is confident their passengers can travel without worry this month.

Read more: Ryanair crew announce 12 new Spain strike dates as passengers worry over flights

He said: "These Spanish labour strikes which have been called by two minority unions in Spain who represent a very small proportion of our people.

"We've had less than one percent disruption to our flights schedule over the past month as a result of these poorly supported strike actions and we are very confident that our Irish passengers will be able to travel in confidence throughout the month of July".

He added that the unions represent tiny numbers of Ryanair crews.

The strikes have been called by the USO and SITCPLA unions from July 12th to Jul 28th.

However, it is anticipated that Air Traffic Control (ATC) and airport staff shortages which are continuing to escalate across Europe, may cause some disruption.

This, the airline said, is beyond Ryanair's control and passengers who are impacted will be notified of their entitlements by email or SMS.

USO and SICTPLA unions announced on Saturday that they will be striking for twelve days this month as they demand better working conditions.

The crews' current strike which began on Thursday, ended on Saturday forcing Ryanair to cancel ten flights on Saturday.

Cabin crew will strike on July 12-15, July 18-21 and July 25-28 across the 10 Spanish airports where Ryanair operates.

In a statement the unions said "The unions and crew of Ryanair demand a change of attitude from the airline,"

The unions also urged the government "not to allow Ryanair to violate labour legislation and constitutional rights such as the right to strike".

Airline workers across Europe have been staging walkouts as the sector adapts to a resumption of travel after pandemic

lockdowns.

Aer Lingus

In a statement this weekend, an Aer Lingus spokesperson said: “Due to a spike in Covid cases, Aer Lingus has been forced to cancel three return flights on Saturday 2nd July, and three return flights on Sunday 3rd July.

“Additionally, ground handling industrial action at Lyon Airport has required the cancellation of two return flights to Lyon on Saturday 2nd July.

(NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Just over 1% of Aer Lingus flights have been impacted by cancellations in June.

“Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those impacted and teams at the airline are working to re-accommodate impacted passengers on the next available services as efficiently as possible. Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built appropriate buffers into our plans in order to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption.

“System pressures and ongoing issues at some airports and among third party suppliers have created considerable operational challenges which have been compounded by a significant spike in Covid cases in recent days.

“We have shared detail regarding customers’ rights the airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004.”

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