Airline in warning on strike

Published on Thursday 30 May 2002 01:00

IRELAND’S cash-strapped state airline Aer Lingus is threatening that if a pilots’ strike continues over the weekend it could go bust.

The flag carrier’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, said today’s stoppage by pilots over new working practices would cost Aer Lingus around 1.25 million, cash it can ill afford to lose given the state of its finances after a series of shocks in 2001, including the September 11 attacks.

Mr Walsh said full implementation of a survival plan drawn up last year was the airline's only hope.

He said: "I would seriously urge all pilots to return to work, not to take this strike action, not to close the airline."

Prime minister Bertie Ahern has also appealed to both sides in the dispute to find a way out of the impasse.

The pilots’ union, Impact, has said Aer Lingus could have avoided today’s strike, called after the airline suspended the first of seven pilots sent home for refusing to work new rosters, if it had been prepared to hold further talks. Mr Walsh said the airline had been in negotiations with the pilots for seven months and the time for talking was over.

The company, which had been due to be sold off before it plunged into the red, lost 87m last year and has projected a 16.8m loss for this year. Aer Lingus has hired three aircraft and crews to maintain a skeleton services, but today’s strike will affect about 20,000 passengers.