Air Canada said it has begun a “gradual suspension” of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations on Thursday morning, and will cancel 500 flights by the end of the day Friday.
The cancellation will affect 130,000 customers a day, including 25,000 Canadians who may risk being stranded abroad, and all flights will be paused by early Saturday, said Mark Nasr, executive vice president and COO of Air Canada, in a press conference.
The press briefing was cut short on Tuesday when a group of protesters entered the chamber holding placards that read “unpaid work won’t fly” among other messages.
Air Canada is “simply not the kind of system that we can start or stop at the push of a button,” Nasr said. “So in order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin now.”
The first set of cancellations will largely affect long-haul international flights due to depart Thursday evening, and the cancellations will grow in magnitude, Nasr explained.
“By tomorrow evening, we expect to have cancelled flights affecting over 100,000 customers. And then, of course, the time we get to 1 am on Saturday morning, we’ll be completely grounded.”
More than 10,500 flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees will walk off the job on Saturday if no deal is reached in the next 36 hours, following the union’s 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday.
Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE, said Tuesday that Air Canada’s latest offer — an eight per cent wage increase in the first year and 17.2 per cent over four years — falls below inflation and minimum wage, noting that the current wage was set under a 10-year agreement from 2014.
The airline said on Thursday that the union demanded an increase in compensation of more than 100 per cent, exceeding its latest offer of 38 per cent, including wages, pension and benefits.
In a statement Thursday morning, federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu said she has received Air Canada’s request to enter binding arbitration with the union and has asked the union to respond.
“To be clear: deals that are made at the bargaining table are the best ones,” Hajdu wrote, adding that she urges both parties to come back to the bargaining table to reach a deal “for the many travellers who are counting on you.”
The airline sent CUPE a proposal to send their contract negotiations to binding arbitration on Monday, saying that it has reached an impasse after the union rejected its proposal.
Customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified promptly and given the option of a full refund.
“This approach will help limit the strike’s impact by allowing as many customers as possible to complete their journeys. But importantly, it will also help facilitate an orderly restart, which, under the best circumstances, will take a full week to complete,” said Nasr.
Nasr added that Air Canada Express service will continue as those flights are operated by its partner airlines, Jazz and PAL airlines.
“We are extremely disappointed by CUPE’s decision, which threatens to disrupt the travel plans of more than 130,000 customers a day,” said Nasr.
Air Canada will offer alternative travel arrangements, but “unfortunately, this being the peak of the summer travel season, our ability to rebook customers on other airlines will be very limited,” he said.
