Ryanair Pilot Strike Causes More Flight Cancellations

Ryanair has cancelled 24 flights for Friday as some of its Ireland-based pilots strike for a second 24-hour period.

The low cost airline said that 25 percent of its more than 350 pilots based in the Republic voted to strike on Friday, causing the cancellation of 24 of its 290 planned flights between Ireland and the UK.

Ryanair said the strike was unnecessary as it had already given the pilots written proposals that address their concerns over seniority.

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association branch of the Fórsa union gave notice last week of two additional one day strikes by Ryanair pilots. The stoppages will run for 24 hours from 01:00 (1am) on Friday July 20th and Tuesday July 24th.

The union said the two sides had found some common ground last week in talks on a proposal to set up a joint working group to agree on a “fair and transparent” method to govern base transfer arrangements. Despite that they failed to reach agreement on the terms of reference for a working group and said the strikes would go ahead.