Ryanair said it would cancel up to 30 of its 290 Irish flights on Thursday as a result of a planned pilots' strike, limiting the disruption to high frequency British-Irish routes but warned further disruptions could not be ruled out.

Pilots directly employed by Ryanair and who are members of its Irish trade union voted to go on strike for the first time after the union said last week that the budget carrier had failed to meet demands over new working practices.

"These coordinated strike threats are designed to cause unnecessary disruption to customers and damage Ryanair's low fare model, for the benefit of high fare competitor airlines in Ireland and Germany," Ryanair said in a statement.