Ryanair has warned that if the Irish pilots' union, Fórsa does not call off next Tuesday's planned strike, it will cancel 16 flights in and out of Ireland on that day.
In a tweet this afternoon, Ryanair urged Fórsa to call off its third 24-hour stoppage scheduled for 24 July.
It said the strike involved fewer than 25% of their Irish pilots (only those who are directly employed rather than contractors).
The airline published a copy of the letter sent by Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson to Fórsa National Secretary Angela Kirk who has been negotiating on behalf of the Irish-based pilots.
He says that at yesterday's meeting between management and Fórsa nothing was progressed and there had been no engagement or response from the pilots' committee to Ryanair's proposals on seniority base transfers, annual leave or promotions.
He said that while Fórsa had committed to getting back to the airline so that there would be no further disruption to thousands of holidaymakers, it was unacceptable that 24-hours later, they had had no response from the union, and are now facing a third day of strike action next Tuesday.
Mr Wilson said: "Unless we hear back from Fórsa by 1900 hours this evening calling off this third unnecessary strike (which is supported by just 25% of our Irish pilots) we will issue cancellations tomorrow (Friday) to passengers on 16 (of over 290) flights to and from Ireland next Tuesday".
He goes on to say: "We can readily re-accommodate this small number of customers on other flights".
He concluded by saying that Fórsa's lack of urgency is unacceptable when their committee is unable to engage or negotiate - and that this matter requires the union's urgent attention.
Ryanair also accused Fórsa of being unable to explain its demands over seniority and base transfer proposals, which did not even affect them.
Asked about Ryanair's call to stand down the strike, a Fórsa spokesperson noted that the airline had not made such a call at yesterday's meeting.
He said he was awaiting confirmation that the union would be reverting to Ryanair.
Ryanair dismisses claims that it threatened to withdraw from Spain
Ryanair has dismissed reports that it threatened to withdraw from Spain if it could not operate employment contracts under Irish law as "utter rubbish".
An agency called Europa Press cited the Spanish unions USO and SITCPLA as confirming that the warning was issued during negotiations aimed at averting the planned two-day strike scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday, 25/26 July by 4,000 cabin crew in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium.
However, Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said: "These union claims are utter rubbish. Ryanair is Spain's number one airline."
The planned cabin crew strike has forced Ryanair to cancel 600 flights - 12% of its daily scheduled traffic - over the two strike days, disrupting 100,000 passengers.
The airline said it had been contacting passengers to make alternative arrangements and it has also pledged to make additional customer service staff available.
It has also confirmed that it has reached a union recognition agreement with the German union Ver.di to negotiate on behalf of cabin crew in Germany.
It said it now had recognition agreements covering 60% of its cabin crew, including a deal with the Unite trade union in the UK, and with Italian unions ANPAC and ANPAV.
Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said the growing number of pilot and cabin crew recognition agreements confirmed that Ryanair was making progress and confounding those who claimed that its December 2017 decision to recognise unions was not real or genuine.
One-day strike by pilots tomorrow
Meanwhile, tomorrow's one-day strike by directly-employed Irish-based pilots has forced the cancellation of a further 24 flights, but Ryanair insisted that 90% of the 4,000 passengers affected have already been refunded or rerouted.
As with last week's 24-hour stoppage, which saw 30 flights halted, the cancelled flights are on high-frequency Ireland-UK routes, in order to avoid disruption to families heading to popular European holiday destinations.
