Irish carrier Aer Lingus faces the prospect of more industrial disruption following the decision by its pilots to vote for industrial action over new duty rosters.
If the action goes ahead from the indicated date of 7 June it will have "a significant adverse effect on profitability, occurring as it does in the peak summer season", said the airline in a statement.
Aer Lingus said that in the notice of forthcoming industrial action served by the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) branch of the IMPACT trade union, pilots based both in Dublin and Cork had indicated they would not work on rostered free days or annual leave days and would report for duty one hour later than their rostered times.
The Irish flag carrier's chief executive, Christoph Mueller, said: "This withdrawal of flexibility will destroy our ability to operate a proper schedule as we will miss airport slot times, parking stands, gate positions and will be unable to fulfil flight connections for customers.
"In addition, pilot and cabin crew operational duties will be out of sync, which may result in cabin crew having insufficient hours to operate all flights.
"This may lead to a full cancellation of operations from Tuesday 7 June unless IALPA/IMPACT stand down their action."
The airline added that talks had been continuing for some time to develop new manpower planning and roster models and it remained willing to work towards a "mutually workable solution" to the problem.
The staffing situation had become more difficult in recent weeks due to "higher than expected levels of attrition in the UK".
The pilots' move follows a rumbling dispute over cost-cutting measures between the carrier and its cabin crew that culminated in a strike in January and early February of 2011.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
