Ryanair insists its flights will go ahead as planned over the next two days despite a strike by its UK pilots.
Members of the British Airline Pilots Association walked out at midnight last night after a High Court judge refused to grant Ryanair an injunction blocking the move.
BALPA said it later extended Ryanair an ‘olive branch’, offering to call off the strike if the airline would agree to a framework for further negotiations.
However, Ryanair rejected the last-minute peace offer, said BALPA, and strikes will continue until midnight tomorrow. Further strikes are planned from September 3-5.
Ryanair said the first wave of flights to and from UK airports departed as scheduled this morning, with 97% on time. The remainder were delayed by air traffic control, it said.
"We do not expect any disruptions to our flights to/from our UK airports today," it added.
"We wish to thank all our UK pilots who have chosen to work to protect the flights and travel plans of our customers and their families over the bank holiday weekend."
BALPA says 80% of its Ryanair members voted for the strike over pay and benefits, but the airline claimed this amounted to only 30% of its pilots. Some of its pilots operating flights to and from the UK are based in other European countries and are not members of BALPA.
However, Ryanair’s pilots based in Spain are also threatening to strike on10 days in September, starting on September 1. Its pilots in Ireland were planning to join today’s strike but yesterday a judge in Dublin blocked the industrial action, granting Ryanair an injunction on the grounds that their union Forsa hadn’t waited until the end of the mediation process before launching industrial action.
Ryanair said all pasengers travelling today and on Friday should arrive at their departure airport as normal. Whilst initially it said warned there might be some ‘small’ flight delays and/or changes it said there had been none so far this morning.
