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Potential Air Transat pilot strike looming over upcoming holiday travel season
A resounding majority of Air Transat pilots said Wednesday they are ready to go on strike next week, just ahead of the holiday travel season, should airline management fail to table a “modern contract.”
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents about 700 Air Transat pilots — 98 per cent of whom cast a ballot — said 99 per cent have voted in favour of labour action.
While not a formal strike notice, the union said the “pilots are prepared for any outcome.”
“Nobody wants to strike,” Capt. Bradley Small, Air Transat Master Executive Council union chair, told National Post.
“The company doesn’t want that. The pilots don’t want that. But we also want a fair agreement.”
Small said that pilots want an agreement in line with what their peers at Air Canada and WestJet have signed in recent years, and reflective of the realities of 2025.
Such a deal, he said, would address working conditions around scheduling, improved insurance coverage, better retirement security, and compensation. They’re also hoping to bolster job security by limiting the number of outsourced pilots Air Transat can use as it expands operations.
Negotiations to replace the decade-old agreement began in January and continued past the April expiration date through the summer, during which time Small alleges the company was only present about one-fifth of the time, prompting the union to ask Ottawa to provide conciliators.
After roughly two months of talks proved fruitless, a 21-day cooling-off period was initiated and conciliation turned to ongoing mediation, Small explained. That ends at midnight on Sunday, after which Air Transat can force a lockout or the union can file the required 72-hour strike notice to hit the picket lines as early as Dec. 10, this coming Wednesday.
“Right now, between what the company is offering and where we say we have to be to be at industry standards, there’s quite a big spread,” Small said Thursday morning.
“They’re going to have to work pretty hard to get to a point where we would push that to a further date or come up with an agreement.”
In a statement sent to National Post, Air Transat vice president of operations Dave Bourdages said significant progress has been made with the help of the conciliators to reach a tentative agreement and avoid a work stoppage.
“The goal remains to negotiate a collective agreement that satisfies both parties, reflects market realities and those of the company, and recognizes the contribution of our pilots,” he stated.
John Gradek, an aviation management lecturer at McGill and a former Air Canada executive, said the pilots are justified in their desire for a modernized contract.
“All the major clauses in the agreement have remained static over 10 years,” he said, “and working conditions established both by regulation as well as by competitors have changed significantly in that period of time.”
Airline bracing for holiday travel disruptions
In a notice to passengers , the airline said those fearing a strike will interfere with upcoming travel plans can cancel or modify their existing reservation “according to the terms and conditions of their fare class.”
If a strike notice is filed, the airline said “certain flights” will be cancelled and it would “do everything possible to assist customers in returning to their point of origin.”
“This would include the offer of a new ticket on a next available flight if such an option exists within 48 hours of the original departure time, or the refund of any unused portion of the trip.”
Small said the union was understanding of passenger concerns at this time of year, but blamed the company for dragging its heels.
He remains hopeful that a deal can be reached so their plans won’t be delayed or cancelled.
Gradek, however, doesn’t think passengers have to worry about a strike as there are elements “playing in favour of a settlement.”
Firstly, he said, Air Transat pilots have never had a work stoppage, and he contends that they have little appetite to have one now.
The other factor is the airline’s current financial situation.
This summer, Air Transat reached a deal to restructure the debt it incurred during the pandemic , thereby forgiving hundreds of millions it owed. Gradek added that the airline simply can’t afford to lose Christmas revenues that account for 15 to 20 per cent of annual profit.
“It’s going to be cheaper for Air Transat to settle with its pilots than for them to suffer, a two- or three- or four-day work stoppage by the pilots,” he said.
National Post contacted WestJet, Porter and Air Canada to ask if they have plans to modify operations to accommodate Air Transat passengers impacted by a strike.
“We are aware of the contract talks and are monitoring the situation, while getting ready for the always busy holiday season, when our planes are usually quite full,” the latter noted in an email to National Post.
The potential strike is the latest of recent labour actions within Canada’s airline industry.
Last summer, WestJet’s Canada Day long weekend flights were disrupted when mechanics went on strike. The airline’s flight attendants, meanwhile, have a contract set to expire on Dec. 31, with negotiations underway, according to CUPE 8125 .
This summer, Air Canada flight attendants were on strike for three days — during which time they ignored a federal return-to-work order — before resuming negotiations and reaching a deal.
Small was dubious Ottawa would step in this time, but said they’ll be ready to deal with it should it occur.
Gradek is even more sure that Minister of Transport Steve MacKinnon or Minister of Jobs Patt Hajdu won’t act.
“I don’t think they want to be pushed to a corner and have to go through the same embarrassment that happened with the Air Canada flight attendants,” he said.
“I think that they’re hoping against hope that negotiations will in fact reach an agreement prior to Dec. 10.”
That seemed to be the message from Hajdu on Wednesday when reporters asked if Ottawa would intervene.
“These are all hypothetical questions. What I know is, the best deals are the ones that the parties arrive at together,” she said, according to The Canadian Press.
“Let’s hope that they continue to have those conversations in earnest, and protect their industry, their employees and, of course, the many passengers that are relying on them.”
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