Air Canada could begin suspending flights next weekend as strike deadline approaches

Air Canada is currently working on suspending most of its flights, which is expected to begin on Sunday, as talks with the pilots' union have reached an impasse over “inflexible” wage demands, the country's largest airline said on Monday.

The airline and its low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge are preparing to phase out flights over three days, potentially starting as early as September 15. The airlines operate nearly 670 flights a day.

If no agreement is reached, the airline or union will likely announce a 72-hour strike or lockout, followed by a three-day layoff plan. The closure could affect 110,000 passengers a day.

Air Canada is offering customers scheduled to travel between September 15 and 23 the opportunity to change their booking now for free. Customers can also cancel flights and receive a credit for future travel instead.

If a strike or lockout is declared and a passenger's flight is cancelled, Air Canada will notify those affected and they will be entitled to a full refund of their fare – but not to additional compensation under existing Canadian air passenger protection regulations.

Barry Eidlin, associate professor of sociology at McGill University, said the stalemate between Air Canada and the pilots' union is a normal state of affairs when it comes to negotiations.

He added that Canadians who negotiated collective agreements this year did so against a backdrop of high inflation that “has massively eroded the wages of Canadian workers.”

“There is a game of catch-up going on, with workers trying to make up for lost ground, particularly … under collective agreements negotiated before the inflationary climate,” he said.

“There is still time for an agreement,” says Air Canada boss

Talks between Air Canada and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents more than 5,200 pilots at Canada's largest airline, are continuing, but the two parties remain far apart, the company said.

WATCH HERE | Air Canada could begin suspending flights next weekend:

Air Canada could begin suspending flights next weekend if no agreement is reached with the pilots' union

Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge are preparing to phase out flights over three days, potentially starting as early as September 15, as talks with the pilots' union have reached an impasse.

“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,” CEO Michael Rousseau said in the statement Monday.

First Officer Charlene Hudy, chair of the Air Canada Master Executive Council for ALPA, told CBC News in a written statement that Air Canada should “stop threatening air traffic disruption and come to the negotiating table with serious proposals.”

“Air Canada continues to post record profits — and rewards its executives generously — while expecting pilots to accept substandard salaries,” Hudy wrote. “Now, because of its corporate greed, Air Canada is preparing to disrupt flights and harass passengers.”

Last month, pilots voted overwhelmingly in favor of industrial action, with 98 percent of them voting in favor. The union and the airline began a three-week cooling-off period on August 27, which is required under Canadian law.

Sociology professor Eidlin pointed out that pilots differ from employees in other industries in that they often have to deal with colleagues from other countries in their daily work.

“They are members of the same union and talk to colleagues who work for other airlines. They know these differences. And this different context makes a big difference in how people assess their pay and what expectations they should have about pay,” he said.

“Our government firmly believes in the collective bargaining process and Canadians are counting on the parties to reach an agreement,” said a statement from the office of Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon.

Mike Springer, who lives in Bridgewater, NS, has been a life-long Air Canada customer, but with surgery scheduled in Toronto, he and his wife decided not to risk a cancelled flight – and booked with WestJet instead.

Springer told CBC News he was “100 percent” on the side of the pilots.

“If you're sitting next to a plane that's on the tarmac, and it's, for example, a United flight that's going to the same city as you, and the pilot sitting in the front is getting paid twice as much as you, I don't think that's fair,” he said.

As for WestJet, Springer said there were no complaints with the airline after booking this flight.

“And maybe they will end up gaining new customers as a result.”

Pilots want to keep up with US colleagues

Air Canada pilots are aiming to close the pay gap with their higher-earning U.S. counterparts, who have been able to secure lucrative collective bargaining agreements amid a pilot shortage and strong travel demand in 2023.

“We fly the same passengers in the same airspace on some of the same routes, and these pilots are paid much more than we are,” Hudy told The Canadian Press last month.

WATCH | Air Canada and the union have a few days left to reach an agreement:

Air Canada strike could put passengers in distress

Air Canada is preparing to cancel flights ahead of a possible pilot strike next week, leaving passengers to look for alternative travel options.

ALPA pilots had previously stated that current salaries at US competitor Delta Air Lines were up to 45 percent higher than the hourly wages at the Canadian airline.

“We appreciate [the Air Canada pilots’] “Frustration, but also note that the situation is not quite comparable considering the barriers to entry for pilot projects in the U.S.,” TD Cowen analyst Thomas Fitzgerald wrote in a note last week.

Between March and September last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines were able to conclude collective bargaining agreements that provided for salary increases of between 34 and 40 percent over a period of four years.

Earlier this year, West Jet pilots signed a new contract, preventing a strike.

Air Canada also expects it will take seven to 10 days after the full lockdown to resume normal operations. Flights across the system will be canceled for three days, with the full lockdown occurring as early as September 18 at 12:01 a.m. ET.

The company is in discussions with other airlines to accommodate stranded passengers in the event of a flight cancellation, it said, noting that flights under the Air Canada Express brand would continue to operate as they are operated by third-party airlines.