Hundreds of Aer Lingus pilots marched around Dublin Airport during an eight-hour strike in a bitter dispute with the airline over pay.

The pilots, all in full uniform, set off at 6am from Aer Lingus’s head office on the airport site and walked past the two terminal buildings twice holding placards and banners.

The demonstration, which took place in pouring rain, caused major traffic disruption around the airport.

After the march was concluded, pilots set up a picket line at the main roundabout on the entrance to the airport.

The walkout, which ended at 1pm, came after primary schools in Ireland finished for their summer holidays and when many will be preparing for family trips abroad.

Prior to Saturday’s full strike, pilots had been involved in indefinite work-to rule industrial action that began on Wednesday. Almost 400 flights have been cancelled so far, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

Despite pressure from Irish premier Simon Harris and other senior government figures for both sides to “dig deep” to resolve the dispute, there have been no breakthroughs.

A chance of a breakthrough came in the form of an invite to attend a Labour Court meeting on Monday, which was issued on Friday while the disputes committee of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) was considering an escalation.

There's an opportunity here. If it fails, then an escalation would certainly be realistic

The union formally accepted the invite and agreed not to escalate “at this point in time” but said Saturday’s strike and the work-to-rule would continue.

Aer Lingus and the Forsa union, of which Ialpa is associated with, also accepted the invite.

Ialpa president Mark Tighe said he was not aware whether they would be in the same room or not, as previous meetings had seen management and pilots hold discussions separately.

On Saturday, Aer Lingus apologised to passengers for the “serious disruption” caused by the strike action.

“The company restates its view that today’s strike action by Ialpa is very damaging to our customers, the wider staff in Aer Lingus and the company itself,” the airline said in a statement.

“Ialpa’s actions continue to inflict serious reputational and financial damage on the airline and are increasingly making a resolution of the dispute more difficult. Aer Lingus welcomes yesterday’s Labour Court invitation to both parties back into the court and hopes that Monday’s engagement in the court can result in an outcome that will bring normality to the travelling public.”

The pilots had been seeking a pay increase of 24%, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.

In recent days they have indicated they would be willing to accept less of an increase, but there remains a significant gap between their position and management’s.

Aer Lingus has said it is willing to offer pay increases of 12.25% or above if “improvements in productivity and flexibility” are discussed.

One stumbling block is that the pilots’ union has said their mandate is to refrain from discussing productivity while the airline is saying it will only discuss higher pay increases if that condition is included.

“There’s an opportunity here. If it fails, then an escalation would certainly be realistic,” Ialpa president Captain Mark Tighe said.

Asked about whether other Ialpa pilots who work for other airlines would cross the picket, he said: “The days of not crossing a picket to do your job in another company I think maybe are gone.”