On Wednesday 20 January, Ireland's three largest airports will close for four hours this afternoon due to an air traffic controller strike. More than 300 staff at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports are walking away from their duties in protest at the suspension of 15 colleagues who were unhappy with the introduction of new technology.

According to The Irish Times, Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports will not allow aircraft to land or take off between 14:00 and 18:00 local time (17:00 and 21:00 Moscow time). Due to the strike, more than a hundred flights, for which over 13 thousand passengers have registered, will be delayed. Thus, Ryanair was forced to cancel 48 flights, and Aer Lingus - 64 flights.

Both airlines announced their readiness to re-register passengers for other flights or refund them the cost of purchased tickets.

The conflict between the union and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) occurred after the agency introduced new equipment for air traffic controllers. The day before, air traffic controllers said that the innovation had significantly complicated their work, both technically and psychologically, and demanded that their wages be increased by six percent.

The aviation authority decided not to follow the lead of airport employees and stated that it was not going to “pay air traffic controllers every time technology improves” and suspended 15 people from work. According to the administration representative, in fact, air traffic controllers are primarily interested in the issue of increasing salaries, and not in the problem of new technologies.

In turn, air traffic controllers emphasized that they would be ready to call off the strike if the aviation department reverses the decision to suspend their colleagues from work.

Over the past few months, strikes by air traffic controllers have been taking place around the world. Thus, a few days ago, dissatisfied with the cuts, French dispatchers refused to go to work, disrupting the arrival and departure schedules of many flights throughout the country. In the spring of 2009, air traffic controllers from Greece came out with a demand to increase their salaries.

Irish air traffic controllers go on strike