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Aer Lingus to rebook flyers due to strike threat

* Union plans four-hour stoppage on March 14 over pensions

* Aer Lingus (Other OTC: AELGF - news) says is already affecting company, clients

DUBLIN, March 3 (Reuters) - Irish airline Aer Lingus has started rebooking customers due to the threat of a strike by workers on March 14 in a dispute over pensions, it said on Monday.

Aer Lingus's largest trade union, SIPTU, has called for a four-hour stoppage on March 14 - the start of a holiday weekend for Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's St Patrick's Day - due to the dispute over how to resolve a shortfall in the funding of the staff pension scheme.

"The service of notice of industrial action to take place on 14 March 2014 has already caused significant commercial damage to (the) company and has inconvenienced and distressed customers," Aer Lingus said in a statement.

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"The company will commence the process of re-accommodating and rebooking customers from tomorrow - 4 March 2014 - in order to give certainty to customers regarding their travel arrangements in the face of threatened industrial action."

The pension scheme, which employees at Aer Lingus share with other Irish aviation industry workers, has a deficit of over 700 million euros ($964 million).

Aer Lingus says it is not legally obliged to help fund the Irish Airlines (General Employees) Superannuation Scheme (IASS), but has offered to make a one-off payment of 140 million euros to the scheme, a figure SIPTU says is not sufficient.