Ryanair pilots ‘will stage two further days of strike action’

SOME Ryanair pilots will stage a further two days of industrial action, the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association revealed yesterday.

The announcement from Ialpa – part of trade union Fórsa – came in the wake of yesterday’s 24-hour strike, which affected 30 of the budget airline’s 290 scheduled Irish flights.

The planned strikes are set for Friday, July 20, and Tuesday, July 24, after the pilot representatives and airline authorities failed to reach an agreement on employment conditions.

Specifically, agreement could not be reached surrounding a working group for pilots. Talks between Ryanair and its pilots could start again over the coming days but it wasn’t clear last night how soon they will get together again.

Indeed, Ryanair, which insisted yesterday’s strike had ‘achieved nothing’, was more noticeably tight-lipped when asked about strike action.

This was in direct contrast to the 640word statement the airline put on its website the day before the strike.

Plans for strikes have spread to other European countries at peak season. Ryanair crews in Italy are set to hold a 24-hour strike on July 24, while cabin crew in Spain, Belgium and Portugal are planning to stage a 48-hour strike on July 25 and 26. Ryanair was asked yesterday whether there have been any developments at its end that change or might change strike plans by European crews.

However, answering on the airline’s behalf, a spokesperson for an out-ofhouse PR company would only say: ‘In relation to your question about Italian cabin crew on July 25, Ryanair has not received any formal strike notice.’

On Twitter, however, the airline was in a buoyant, even triumphalist mood.

It told its followers that yesterday’s strike ‘by 25% of Irish pilots has achieved nothing’. Ryanair added: ‘We hope they [those striking] will now accept our offer to set up a working group to discuss, explain and resolve their issues.’