Aer Lingus chief issues fresh warning to pilots

The warning came in a letter sent by Mr Coyle to pilots union Ialpa on February 5, which was sent in response to Ialpa's request for details of the airline's commercial arrangements in the US and the UK.

Declining to give any such details, Mr Coyle appealed to Ialpa to "reconsider its focus and priorities and engage with us to address our areas of uncompetitiveness", in reference to stalled negotiations on annual efficiencies of €2.5m from the airline's pilots grouping.

Senior sources at Aer Lingus yesterday claimed that despite being the highest-paid group at Aer Lingus, pilots, so far, failed to contribute to the airline's €50m annual efficiencies achieved by the airline.

Ialpa boss Evan Cullen, however, strongly rejected the suggestion that his union was "stalling for time".

"I'm on leave, so the first I've heard of this letter is just now," he said. "This coming into the public domain at this stage is counter-productive.

"We have never refused to talk about the issues, we have engaged and we will continue to engage under the LRC process.

"Some meetings had to be cancelled," he added, "but that's because myself and other officials are on leave and the company know we're on leave."

Pay

On the subject of pilots' pay packages, Mr Coyle said some were earning almost €300,000 a year while flying an average of just 600 hours a year. "Clearly in the current climate, this cannot continue," he added.

Aer Lingus has put a set of cost-cutting proposals to pilots, which are understood to focus on longhaul operations and include plans to cut the number of "overnights" pilots spend in the US before flying the second leg of a transatlantic route.

"Pilots' current earning potential is very generous and there are no plans to reduce that, provided we can achieve world-class productivity," Mr Coyle said in the letter.

The airline has already with-held the 3.5pc pay rise due to pilots on January 1 under the National Wage Agreement, and sources said there were "other options" open if progress cannot be achieved with the pilots.

In his letter, Mr Coyle also questioned Ialpa's recent decision to form an alliance with US pilots group Usalpa in response to a new partnership between Aer Lingus and United Airways.

On February 2, Mr Cullen said he looked forward to working with his US counterparts to "confront the challenges" posed for both sets of pilots by the decision to set up a separate US operation to run the partnership routes.

Mr Coyle, however, stressed that Aer Lingus was "not seeking to undermine Irish pilots or jobs" and said the company was "disappointed" by Ialpa's position.