RYANAIR HAS SAID that it will publish contingency plans on next week’s planned strikes on its website on Monday.

Earlier this week, pilots in Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Spain served the company notice that they would be striking on Wednesday 20 December.

Irish-based directly-employed pilots, mostly captains, will withdraw their labour in an action that trade union Impact, of which Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) is a branch, said will “either disrupt flights or generate substantial costs to the airline”.

The pilots backed industrial action by a margin of 94% to 6% in secret ballots conducted over the last week.

In a statement today, Ryanair said it was making plans to “minimise these disruptions for our customers” as a result of this industrial action.

“We apologise sincerely to our customers for any worry or concern that this threatened action, during Christmas week by a small number of very well-paid pilots, may cause them,” Ryanair said.

Rest assured that we will do everything we can to minimise disruption for our customers.

The union has warned of further strike days in the future, if Ryanair continues not to engage with it and its members.

Impact official Ashley Connolly said Ryanair was the only Irish-based airline that refuses to recognise independent pilot representatives.

“This dispute is solely about winning independent representation for pilots in the company. Management’s failed negotiating model has let down shareholders and tens of thousands of passengers, whose flights were cancelled this year because company-controlled industrial relations proved incapable of recruiting and retaining enough pilots, Connolly said.

Read: Ryanair pilots in Portugal serve notice of 24 hour strike on 20 December

Read: Ryanair pilots serve notice of strike five days before Christmas