AER LINGUS HAS “sincerely apologised” to customers for “severe disruption” over the weekend and expects to operate a full schedule today.

The airline cancelled 51 flights on Saturday and four on Sunday – mainly to and from Dublin and European and UK destinations – following a “system outage”.

An Aer Lingus spokesperson says this outage was caused by a “break in connectivity in services from a UK network provider”. 

This resulted in key systems for check-in, boarding, and the airline’s website to be unavailable.

All of these systems were restored on Saturday evening, which allowed Aer Lingus to “operate the vast majority” of its services on Sunday and the air line expects to operate its full schedule today.

Rebooking and refunds

The air line’s spokesperson said “customers impacted by Saturday’s disruption are being contacted and where possible rebooked onto the next available Aer Lingus flight”.

Aer Lingus has also added additional capacity and services on a number of European routes today and tomorrow to accommodate customers impacted by the disruption. 

Meanwhile, the spokesperson says that “customers who wish to apply for a refund or change their travel plans, can do so free of charge” via Aer Lingus’ website, its social media channels, or via its call centres. 

Aer Lingus has increased the number of Call Centre agents available to support customers, but due to the level of disruption, call wait times may be longer.

The airline says hotel accommodation has been offered to affected customers at most airports and customers who secured their own accommodation will be reimbursed accordingly. 

Aer Lingus added that is it “doing all we can to re-accommodate disrupted customers as efficiently as possible”.