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Air Transat, one of Canada’s largest airlines, said it will start gradually suspending some flights starting on Monday ahead of a planned strike.<\/p>\n
The union representing the airline’s pilots issued a 72-hour strike notice on Sunday, announcing that Air Transat pilots will stop showing up to work on Wednesday if a contract agreement is not reached. <\/p>\n
Following the strike notice, the airline said it would gradually shut down its operations “to prevent the consequences of a sudden, unplanned interruption”. <\/p>\n
The airline called the strike notice “premature” while a union leader said there is still time to avoid the strike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“No pilot wants to strike, but Air Transat management has left us no choice,” Capt Bradley Small, who heads a group of pilots within the union, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
“Months of unproductive bargaining ends now. If we cannot reach an agreement, management will be responsible for every cancelled flight and stranded passenger.”<\/p>\n
Air Transat pilots have been negotiating for nearly a year to replace their current 2015 contract with one that they hope will cement “industry-standard pay, benefits, work rules, and job security”, the pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said. <\/p>\n
The union said that 99% of its 750 Air Transat pilots had voted to authorise their leadership to declare a strike.<\/p>\n
In response, the airline – which is one of the three largest in Canada – said it will start cancelling flights on Monday, with a suspension of all flights on Tuesday, in preparation for a possible pilots strike on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
“This strike notice is premature given the progress made at the bargaining table and the generous offers made by Air Transat,” Julie Lamontagne, a human resources officer at Air Transat, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Ms Lamontagne said the airline had been negotiating in good faith, and accused the pilots union of showing “indifference toward Transat” in its “reckless decision” to authorise a strike “that does not reflect the state of negotiations”. <\/p>\n
The airline said it its flight cancellations were necessary to prevent crews, passengers and aircraft from being “stranded abroad if the strike occurs”. <\/p>\n
In 2024, Air Transat’s flight dispatchers overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike after contract negotiations with their union stalled, but that strike was ultimately averted. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n