DESPITE LAST MINUTE talks in a bid to stave off industrial action, the Ryanair strike has gone ahead.

The airline has cancelled 30 of its 290 flights between Ireland and the UK today, in an attempt to minimise disruption to European destinations used for family holidays.

Approximately 5,000 passengers are estimated to be affected.

It comes as a quarter of the airline’s Irish-based pilots refused to do their duties as a result of a dispute over their employment conditions.

Members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA), a branch of the Forsa trade union, last week voted to go on strike. The union said it will notify the airline of additional strike days in due course.

Ryanair has said that customers who are travelling on one of its flights to or from Ireland today and who have not already received an email or text notification should expect their flight to operate as normal.

The airline has urged all future passengers to check its social media profiles to see if there are any changes to its scheduled flights.