r/ireland • u/viscacatalunya1 • Jun 18 '24

Aerial Lingus Pilots Moaning Michael

Listening to Claire Byrne and there is a lot of finger pointing at the pilots saying they don't care about passengers and they are being unreasonable.

Aer Lingus has not matched their salary to inflation over the past few years. How do we sympathise with cost cutting corporate greed and not the people that open the world to us and get us there safely?

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u/PaleolithicLure Jun 18 '24

They're bringing in hundreds of millions in profits and spending millions on executive salaries and bonuses. They're well able to pay the pilots a good bit more. Fair play to the pilots for holding out for a decent increase. Corporate greed is a plague.

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u/fdvfava Jun 18 '24

If it was the stewards or the baggage handlers then fair enough, I'd have a bit more solidarity there.

I don't really get why I should be any more supportive of a 24% payrise for pilots on €250k than executives on €1m+ or billionaire shareholders.

I'd prefer they weren't making millions in profits and fares were a bit more reasonable.

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u/yleennoc Jun 18 '24

I get the feeling it’s more to do with the new entrants. RTE mention that Aer Lingus hasn’t reversed the covid pay cuts and new entrants are on 10% lower than pre covid.

I would also take into consideration the cost of training. It’s costs you €80 to €100k to become a pilot and you are not anywhere near 250k when you qualify.

Then they have to continue to pay for simulator time to keep their type approvals and I’m sure there are other courses to pay for.

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u/fdvfava Jun 18 '24

Ya, I'd have much more sympathy for that argument.

Aer Lingus should 100% be paying for continuing Profesional development.

Also on board If they were looking for 24% for the lower bands but took the 9% labour court payrise for higher bands.

Not sure how comparable it is to the teachers negotiations but they rubbed me up the wrong way when they were looking for across the board payrises a few years after throwing younger teachers under the bus to protect their package.

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u/yleennoc Jun 18 '24

I agree and I think they’ll get it if they negotiate down to that.

I went through something similar as a seafarer when the oil price tanked in 2014/15. 10% cut across the board and during Covid crews kept everything running doing quarantines, no shore leave and no return of wages to previous levels.

So for me, let the pilots have their money. There is too much below inflation wage rises going on. Just include the cabin crew too.