Aer Lingus apologises after cancelled flights causes major disruption to and from Dublin Airport

Aer Lingus has apologised to customers after multiple flights were cancelled yesterday.

Passengers flying to and from Dublin and Belfast were affected with some passengers reporting that they only found out about the cancellations three hours before their flight was scheduled.

One return flight from Dublin has also been cancelled today. The EI638/EI639 service was scheduled to operate Dublin-Brussels-Dublin this evening but has now been cancelled.

Read more: Aer Lingus cancels over a dozen flights to and from Dublin Airport on Sunday

Aer Lingus said the disruption was due to Air Traffic Control strikes and a spike in Covid cases among their staff. They apologised to passengers and said they have sought to re-accommodate them on the next-available flight.

A spokeswoman told Dublin Live: “Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built appropriate buffers into our plans in order to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption.

“This weekend, system pressures from ATC strikes, and ongoing issues at airports and among third party suppliers have regrettably necessitated the cancellation of some flights. This pressure on the system has been compounded by a spike in Covid cases among our own teams in the last number of days.

“Where cancellations have occurred, Aer Lingus has sought to re-accommodate disrupted passengers on the next available alternative service. Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those customers that have been impacted, and has shared detail regarding customers’ rights. The airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which can be found here: www.aerlingus.com/support/legal/regulation.”

Disruption for passengers continued today with 20 flights from different airlines delayed arriving into Dublin, according the Dublin Airport website. Nine of the flights are with Aer Lingus and five are with Ryanair.

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• Holidaymakers in Spain could be fined €750 for urinating in the sea

• Aer Lingus passenger’s ‘trauma’ as luggage worth up €3k left stranded

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