Updated 22.40pm

PLANNED STRIKES BY cabin crew at Aer Lingus has been called off this evening, after representatives from unions and the airline met for talks at the Labour Court today.

The strikes had been due to take place on 16 and 18 June and threatened to disrupt travel for thousands of the airline’s customers over the two days. The dispute between unions representing cabin crew and management at the company centres around rostering patterns.

This evening, Impact said it has agreed to defer the strike action following progress during the engagement today.

In a bulletin notice to members of the branch, branch chair Angela McNeela told members that the cabin crew executive had agreed, following a request from the Labour Court, that the strike action “will be deferred to allow consideration of an interim recommendation”.

The Labour Court will issue that interim recommendation tomorrow morning.).

McNeela said the branch committee’s decision was based on an assessment that “sufficient progress had been made today during the engagement with the Labour Court”.

First published 7.15pm

Related: Aer Lingus and Impact are sitting down this morning to try to sort out all their differences>