RYAN-MARE
Ryanair strikes – Brits braced for Bank Holiday travel hell as pilot walkout is set to hit 250,000 passengers
THOUSANDS of Brits are braced for Bank Holiday travel misery as Ryanair pilots prepare for a 48-hour strike.
Flights between the UK and Ireland could be heavily impacted after Irish pilots for the budget airline tonight confirmed they would walk out on August 22 and 23.
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The budget airlines lawyers are currently making a last ditch legal challenge to block the industrial action.
If protests go ahead they could disrupt the holiday plans of passengers booked on at least 1,714 flights due to depart from UK airports including Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, experts warn.
That means the travel plans of 250,000 face being disrupted over the holiday.
It comes after 94 per cent of directly-employed Ryanair pilots, who are members of the IALPA, voted to back industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and related issues.
Ryanair says the strike could disrupt the plans of "thousands of holidaymakers" and called for pilots and their union to return to independent mediation.
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The airline's UK-based pilots announced a series of walkouts throughout September after the airline announced the closure of its two bases in the Canary Islands.
Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson described the pilots' demands as "grossly unreasonable".
"We have done everything in our power to avoid disruption to our flights and our customers’ holidays.
"Ryanair pilots who are already among the best paid workers in Ireland are now threatening to disrupt the holiday travel plans of thousands of customers over the coming weeks as they demand that their pay be increased from €172,000 p.a. to over €347,000 p.a. that would see them earn more than the President of Ireland or our Taoiseach, even as Norwegian makes all of its Dublin pilots redundant."
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