The Irish Air Lines’ Pilots Association (IALPA), a branch of Fórsa, will attend a Labour Court hearing in April. 

The hearing will address the current pay dispute between IALPA and Aer Lingus and follows recent inconclusive WRC engagements, and IALPA’s rejection, in January, of recommendations by the Pilot Pay Tribunal.

IALPA has said previously that any new pay deal needs to account for the loss of real earnings due to inflation, and to consider pilot pay increases throughout the industry.

Last week Aer Lingus COO Adrian Dunne wrote to pilots with a repeat of the threat - by parent company IAG - that it would halt investment in Aer Lingus until the dispute is settled.

Responding in a letter to members issued last Friday (15th March) IALPA criticised the airline’s correspondence for attempting to create “fear, uncertainty and doubt” among Aer Lingus pilots, and said the airline “is in rude health and making significant profits, with more in the pipeline.”

IALPA president Mark Tighe said the pilot body would “continue to act in good faith and respect the process that we have agreed to partake in.”

The Labour Court hearing is scheduled to take place on 22nd April.

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