Passengers jetting off from Manchester with Ryanair could be hit with further disruption after Irish pilots announced they would be joining strike action.
Widespread travel chaos is likely to be caused on August 22 and 23 as Irish pilots for the budget airline will walk out from their jobs.
Ryanair pilots, members of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) served strike notice on the company this evening.
It comes after 'directly-employed Ryanair pilots' based in Ireland voted 94% to back industrial action over a long-running dispute about pay and working conditions.
British pilots employed by Ryanair have also announced strike action on August 22 and 23 as well as September 2 until Wednesday 4.
Members of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) reported members voted by 4-1 to back industrial action on a 72% turnout.
Yesterday, Fórsa - the parent union of IALPA, attended talks with a mediator, saying only a 'substantive' counter-proposal from Ryanair management, was required to convince pilots’ representatives not to take strike action next week.
No such counter-proposal was made at that meeting, Forsa announced in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk said Ryanair pilots told her they’d been forced into industrial action by the company’s failure to offer any significant response to their proposals over a four-month period.
She said she regretted any disruption that might flow from management’s unwillingness or inability to negotiate a fair and transparent pay package.
Some 180 directly-employed Ryanair pilots based in Ireland, who are members of IALPA, were eligible to vote in the strike ballot.
A strike in 2018 by Ryanair staff saw more 250 flights cancelled and widespread disruption. 35,000 passengers were affected.
The airline’s chief people officer Eddie Wilson said: “Ryanair pilots who are already among the best paid workers in Ireland are now threatening to disrupt the holiday travel plans of thousands of customers over the coming weeks.”
