Air Canada is preparing to suspend most of its flights starting Sunday due to negotiations near “the impasse” with its pilots at “excessive wage demands”the company said Monday. “Air Canada announced today that it is finalizing the details of contingency plans to suspend most of its operations.”the Montreal-based company said in a statement. The company has been negotiating for 15 months with the union representing Air Canada’s 5,200 pilots, but “the parties remain very distant”.
The carrier explains that the “flights of the entire network” could be phased out before the total shutdown, if a strike notice is filed by the union or if there is a lockout, i.e. the temporary closure of a company decided by the employer in response to a social dispute. The total interruption of service could occur Wednesday, September 18 at midnight (0400 GMT), the company said. The airline’s pilots, who voted in August to strike “if necessary”are pushing to close the wage gap with their American counterparts but Air Canada believes their demands “far exceed the average wage increases in Canada”.
“Because of its greed, Air Canada is preparing to disrupt flights and inconvenience passengers”responded the union, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), in a statement sent to AFP on Monday, specifying that the company “continues to post record profits” while waiting for pilots “that they accept a salary lower than that of the market”. Air Canada serves 47 countries and carries an average of 110,000 people per day on its 670 flights. Air Canada Express flights will not be affected as they are operated by third-party carriers that represent 20% of Air Canada’s daily customers.
