Aer Lingus wants to pay new employees more to attract workers

Existing employees who are currently at the first or second salary level will also be promoted to the third level as part of the move.

The airline welcomed ground staff’s approval of the new wage deal – which will see wages rise by over 10 per cent – and said the first two increases would be paid next week.

When asked, the airline declined to comment on the challenges of recruiting employees for the aviation sector. It also didn’t elaborate on how many staff it plans to hire in the coming months leading up to the summer season.

With passenger traffic returning sharply on many routes after travel restrictions were lifted, staff shortages are affecting the entire aviation industry. Airlines, airports and ground handlers have struggled to attract workers after cutting workforces during the pandemic. Many blame lower wages and inhospitable working hours for the difficulties, and airlines like Aer Lingus have tried to improve wages in recent months.

The problem of staff shortages in the industry has had other repercussions as well, with one airline grounding transatlantic flights to and from Dublin Airport in recent days to focus resources on its home market.

Canadian carrier WestJet confirmed in a press release that it is suspending transatlantic service between Halifax and Europe, including to Dublin, this summer as part of its strategy to “manage and restore its network in response to capacity constraints impacting the aviation ecosystem.” .

In addition to Dublin, the Calgary-based airline also served London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Paris. It had already moved to suspend its transatlantic flights from Toronto and Vancouver to Europe in order to reallocate resources to domestic flights within Canada.

A report in Canadian media said the move could be temporary and was partly due to inflation but also due to “enhancing factors such as headcount across the industry”.