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Earlier this week, I wrote about Air Canada finalizing plans to suspend most of its operations on September 15th in the event that the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the carrier could not reach an agreement. Now, it looks like this won’t be happening as a deal was struck yesterday.
More than 5,200 pilots at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge were set to go on strike if their demands were not met. The airline had offered pilots a raise of up to 30%, but ALPA wanted closer to 45%. Attempts to reach an agreement came up unsuccessful last month with the union going into a 21-day cooling-off period. Negotiations were ongoing and the clock was ticking.
Luckily, Air Canada and the union came to an agreement. The terms have not been released and will remain private until a vote is held and it’s ratified. The airline also presented a plan for future growth over the tentatively agreed-upon period and hopes that this will carry them through the next few years as Air Canada plans to bring on new aircraft and expand its route network. The new contract reportedly $1.4 billion USD over the next four years, which is a 46% increase over the old contract that expired last year.
If a strike had occurred and Air Canada did shut down its operations, Air Canada Express flights would have continued to fly (they’re operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines). These regional carriers handle only 20% of Air Canada’s passengers and many of these customers were set to encounter issues as a large portion would have needed to connect onto Air Canada flights.
Back in June, I wrote about another Canadian carrier (WestJet) having to cancel hundreds of flights after its mechanics went on strike. The airline had to scramble to reach an agreement and get its operations back online.
Anthony’s Take: It’s good news for Air Canada, likely also good for its pilots, and definitely good news for passengers who would have felt the brunt of this if their flights had been cancelled.
(Image Credits: Air Canada.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
