Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. 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.
Air Canada is finalizing plans to suspend most of its operations on September 15th if the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the carrier cannot reach an agreement. At that point, either party may issue a 72-hour strike notice, which would trigger Air Canada’s three-day wind down plan.
More than 5,200 pilots at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge could go on strike if their demands are not met. The airline has offered pilots a raise of up to 30%, but ALPA wants 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 are ongoing, but the clock is ticking.
Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada, said:
Air Canada believes there is still time to reach an agreement with our pilot group, provided ALPA moderates its wage demands which far exceed average Canadian wage increases. However, Canadians have recently seen the chaos abrupt airline shutdowns cause for travelers, which obliges us to do everything we can to protect our customers from an increasingly likely work stoppage. This includes the extremely difficult decision to begin an orderly shutdown of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge once a 72-hour strike or lock out notice is given, possibly as early as this Sunday.
We understand and apologize for the inconvenience this would cause our customers. However, a managed shutdown is the only responsible course available to us. We are publicizing our plans to give the more than 110,000 people who travel with us each day greater certainty and the opportunity to reduce the risk of being stranded by using our goodwill policy to change or defer imminent travel at no cost. We are also alerting the Government of Canada to the potential disruption’s impact upon Canadians.”
If a strike occurs and Air Canada shuts down its operations, Air Canada Express flights will continue to fly (they’re operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines). These regional carriers handle only 20% of Air Canada’s passengers with many of these customers set to also encounter issues as a large portion 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.
Impacted passengers can change their flights for free if they purchased an Air Canada ticket or redeemed points for an Aeroplan flight reward no later than September 9th (for travel between September 15th and September 23rd). Passengers can choose to change their flights to another date between September 9th and 14th or September 24th and November 30th.
Anthony’s Take: Air Canada is one of several airlines facing strikes centered around employee wages. United is also getting closer to a strike, but I don’t think we’ll see the possibility of a shutdown there.
(Image Credits: Air Canada.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
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.
1 comment
Pilots have high paid glamorous jobs with ridiculously good benefits. Jobs that don’t require what most people work in terms of monthly hours. While I don’t know how much Air Canada pilots make but if it’s even remotely comparable to what USA pilots earn then a 30% increase is superb. The optics of airline pilots trying to present themselves as the downtrodden are exceedingly poor. Maybe taking the 30% on top of their substantial salaries would be the prudent choice in this case.