Air Transat cancels 6 flights in anticipation of pilots' strike deadline

With to a lesser extent than 24 hours until a potency pilots' walk out, broadcast Transat has at present cancelled a dozen flights that were scheduled for Tuesday and six others scheduled for Wednesday.

The airline has cancelled Tuesday flights from Toronto Pearson to Manchester, U.K.; Montreal to Málaga, Spain; Toronto Pearson to Lisbon; Montreal to Paris; Toronto Pearson to London Gatwick; and Montreal to Lima. Other flight cancellations for Wednesday are listed here.

Previously announced cancellations included round trip flights between Montreal and Cancun, Toronto Pearson and Cancun, and Montreal and Punta Cana.

Amélie Héroux-Gauthier, a Gatineau, Que., resident who is getting married at a resort in Mexico this week, is among those worried that her Air Transat flight will get cancelled.

"Right now we're in limbo. We don't know if the strike will be happening. We know nothing. We're just waiting," said Héroux-Gauthier, who is debating whether or not to pre-emptively cancel her Dec. 12 flight to Cancun.

The airline warned on Monday that if it did not reach a deal with the Air Line Pilots Association, Intl. (ALPA) — the union representing its pilots — by Tuesday, it would start to wind down its operations in anticipation of a strike.

ALPA issued a 72-hour strike notice on Sunday, which means that Air Transat's pilots could walk off the job as soon as 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning.

"We are working tirelessly and still hope to reach an agreement today in order to minimize disruptions to operations," a representative for the airline said in a statement given Tuesday morning.

The carrier has also sent several planes to bring back passengers who are currently abroad and whose return flights would potentially be disrupted by a strike, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that negotiations continue today, and that it made "improved offers" on Monday evening after both parties acknowledged that progress had been made at the bargaining table.

Capt. Bradley Small, chair of the Air Transat Master Executive Council, confirmed that both sides remain at the bargaining table. "We owe it to our passengers and pilots to reach a deal," he said.

"We are committed to negotiating a fair and modern contract that will bring stability to our pilots and our airline."

John Gradek, a professor of operations and integrated aviation management at McGill University, said many labour disputes are resolved in the final hours before a strike deadline.

"That's why we have a deadline. It puts some pressure on both parties to have some clear thoughts and clear initiatives to kind of get to a settlement so that we can minimize the disruption," he said.

Air Transat is a leisure airline with a much smaller fleet relative to major carriers Air Canada and WestJet, added Gradek, putting it "in a different league altogether."

"They don't have the intestinal fortitude and the financial depth that Air Canada and WestJet would have [in the event of a strike]," he said. "So there's much more financially at risk in this one."

Journalist

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