Air Canada flights will continue operating as scheduled, the carrier said in a statement Saturday night after reaching a tentative deal with the union representing its 5,200 pilots just a few hours ahead of a stoppage deadline.
The airline says Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge will continue to operate as normal, and the new four-year contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism” of its pilots.
The terms of the new deal will remain confidential pending a ratification vote by the membership, expected to be completed over the next month.
“Customers who used the airline’s labour disruption goodwill policy to change their flights originally scheduled from between Sept. 15 and Sept. 23, 2024, to another date before Nov. 30, 2024, can change their booking back to their original flight in the same cabin at no cost, providing there is space available,” the company said in its statement that exuded confidence the deal will be approved.
The countdown was on for Air Canada and its pilots to reach a deal, as both sides would have been in a position to issue a 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday. The airline had said the notice would have triggered its three-day wind-down plan, starting the clock on a full work stoppage as early as Wednesday.
Both Air Canada and its pilots will be in a position Sunday to issue a 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout unless a deal is reached, leaving travellers considering their options and hoping for the best.
In the days leading up to the deadline, both the company and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said they remained far apart on the central question of pay.
“Air Canada has been bargaining in good faith with ALPA for 15 months, meeting more than 100 times, and we remain engaged with the union,” the airline said in a statement earlier on Saturday.
“Although our preparations for a possible suspension of operations continue, we have not yet cancelled any flights.”
Air Canada and its low-cost subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge, together operate nearly 670 flights per day. A shutdown would have affected some 110,000 travellers a day, with some already making contingency plans.
Many travellers made backup plans
Margaret Shapiro of Pender Island, B.C., told CBC News that due to the uncertainty surrounding a strike, she had “no option” but to book flights with a different airline as “an insurance policy.”
“It’s costing me $400 more than my original Air Canada tickets,” she said, adding her new Alaska Airlines flight has a layover in Seattle, whereas the original flight she booked was direct.
Shapiro’s Las Vegas trip is the latest biannual excursion with a group of six friends from university, now all in their 70s, who have known each other for decades. “We are seniors on fixed incomes, so it’s no small deal for us,” Shapiro said.
Erik Jensen of New Westminster, B.C., meanwhile, wanted to make backup plans but says the lack of communication from Air Canada made it difficult.
Originally set to leave for a family reunion in Denmark on Sept. 16, Jensen and his family “took the initiative” to bump up their departure date with Air Canada in order to avoid the possible strike.
However, their rebooked tickets were cancelled multiple times without warning, and efforts to contact Air Canada to demand answers were a “roller coaster,” often involving hours on hold and being passed around from agent to agent, he said.
“The biggest thing is [Air Canada] didn’t give us communication about the fact that any of these flights were cancelled,” Jensen to CBC News, noting he had to rebook tickets four times, along with peripheral reservations like hotels and travel arrangements in Denmark.
“In a word, it was a clusterf–k.”
Jensen said that, as of now, Air Canada has booked a Vancouver-to-Montreal flight for his family on Sunday morning, with a connecting Montreal-to-Copenhagen Lufthansa flight.
He also asked if the airline could offer them something for their trouble following the ordeal.
“They offered nothing. We had to wrangle and argue with them and finally managed to get a 15 per cent discount off our next flight. Peanuts, considering what we’ve gone through.”
Cargo already impacted
The ongoing contract dispute is already having an impact on cargo. Air Canada has stopped accepting certain cargo items, such as live animals and perishables, which is affecting seafood exports from Atlantic Canada to Europe and the United States, said Duncan Dee, former chief operating officer at the airline.
Dee said Air Canada would have had to start cancelling long-haul flights this weekend to ensure its planes are not overseas if a work stoppage would have gone ahead.
Air Canada on Thursday called for the federal government to be ready to intervene and order both sides to binding arbitration. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said he wouldn’t tip the scales toward either party.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’s ‘not going to put my thumb on the scale’ on either side as Air Canada and the pilots’ union try to reach an agreement in an ongoing contract dispute.
“I know every time there’s a strike, people say, ‘Oh, you’ll get the government to come in and fix it.’ We’re not going to do that,” Trudeau said at an event in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.
“We have and we will protect the Canadian economy. But first and foremost is putting all the pressure on the people who need to feel that pressure — unions and the employers.”
The Air Canada deal comes just months after WestJet mechanics went on strike for two days in July — a situation Dee called a “black eye” for the Canadian airline industry.
A second strike, he said, would have shown the industry can’t be relied upon.
“There has to be a better way to manage these disputes,” Dee said. “Holding Canadian air travellers and Canadian shippers hostage is not the right way.”