The Ryanair pilots' union Fórsa has warned of further pilot strikes if the two sides do not get into talks to resolve the dispute that has triggered three days of strike action by directly employed pilots based in Ireland.
Speaking on the picket line outside Ryanair Headquarters in Dublin, Fórsa Director of Communications Bernard Harbor said that there had been no movement on the substantive issues since last Friday's stoppage.
He said that he was not optimistic about avoiding future industrial action because the company did not appear to be engaging.
Mr Harbor said that the union's disputes committee would meet tomorrow to decide on whether to hold further strikes.
Asked about Ryanair's threat of job losses at disrupted bases if the strikes continue, Mr Harbor said it was unnecessary to talk about job losses or cutbacks in investment, as the problems could be resolved without recourse to those kinds of threats.
He said Ryanair appeared to be arguing on the one hand that the strikes were having no impact, but on the other that that they are having such a huge impact that it may have to lower its prices and look at its expansion plans.
Mr Harbor was asked what the strike was actually achieving, given that only 70 flights had been cancelled out of Ryanair's enormous operation.
He said Fórsa was happy that there was only limited disruption to passengers, as the union had no dispute with customers.
Ryanair expects no additional flight cancellations tomorrow
This afternoon Ryanair said all of its 50,000 Spain, Portugal and Belgium customers whose flights for this Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled due to a cabin crew strike have been accommodated on alternative flights or applied for refunds over the weekend.
The airline has confirmed that just one flight to and from Dublin has been affected tomorrow, with a further cancellation on Thursday. Ryanair said that all 700 affected passengers have been reaccommodated.
The airline added it expects no further flight cancellations tomorrow.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said a resolution would be found to this dispute as it had sorted similar issues in other markets.
He said that in his opinion, a lot of what Fórsa was saying was "just the dance they go through", but the best thing to do was to meet management and respond to the proposals that they had made.
Read more:
Ryanair publishes cabin crew payslips ahead of strike
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage PreferencesAnnouncing its results yesterday, Ryanair said it was expecting more strikes during the peak summer season.
However, it warned that if they continue, the airline may review its winter schedule, resulting in possible fleet reductions and job losses at disrupted bases.
