MONTREAL – Air Transat passengers face the prospect of flight suspensions this week as the leisure airline prepares to wind down operations ahead of a Wednesday strike deadline from pilots.
Travel company Transat A.T. Inc., which owns the carrier, said cancellations would ramp up ahead of a potential work stoppage that could begin as early as 3 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday.
No Air Transat flights had been called off as of midday Monday, according to the airline and plane tracking platform FlightRadar24. But it had scheduled four additional flights for the day to bring back passengers initially scheduled to return Wednesday who were worried they might be stranded abroad amid the labour dispute.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 750 pilots at Air Transat, issued a 72-hour strike notice over the weekend.
The union has said it wants a deal that boosts wages, job security and quality of life beyond what the 10-year-old collective agreement provides.
The two sides have been in Montreal for round-the-clock negotiations over the past week as the company looks to avert a shutdown on the cusp of the peak holiday travel period.
“We have made progress,” Transat spokeswoman Andréan Gagné said in a release on Monday.
The nearly 40 active planes in Air Transat’s fleet ferry tens of thousands of passengers on more than 500 flights each week, mainly to sun destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Europe. Even if a strike is short or averted entirely, a spate of scrapped trips could disrupt the airline’s flight schedule for days, if not longer.
“Even the threat can be problematic,” Western University employment relations professor Geraint Harvey said. “If this is resolved, this is going to put people off booking with this airline.”
Flights are effectively perishable commodities, he said. That makes disruptions all the more costly during the winter high season, when packed planes and higher fares offset lower numbers in the off-months.
“As soon as you cancel a flight, that’s money lost,” he said.
At the moment, some passengers remain sanguine.
“I’m hoping it will get sorted out because the holidays are coming. We’re hoping it’s fast,” said Adrianna McLean, ahead of her departure to Cancun, Mexico, from Toronto’s Pearson airport.
She and her travel partner Jason Victoria have return flights booked for Dec. 16 but no backup plans in case there’s a disruption.
“We’re supposed to start back at work fairly soon after we get back,” McLean said. “Hopefully we get back, but we might have to try to arrange another plane or something.”
A letter handed to Air Transat passengers by airport staff said flights were proceeding normally Monday and passengers could travel as planned. It also said they could cancel their booking and receive credit to be used within 12 months.
The labour standoff comes at a particularly fraught time for the Montreal-based company as it struggles to manage a large debt load — $1.4 billion in net debt as of July 31 — and turn an annual profit for the first time since 2018.
The board of directors is also trying to fend off an attempted coup by media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau. Last week, the head of telecommunications giant Quebecor Inc., who also owns 9.5 per cent of Transat — its second-biggest shareholder — demanded a board shakeup and strategic overhaul.
The proposal would see the billionaire’s right-hand man at Quebecor replace Transat chairwoman Susan Kudzman, with Péladeau also gaining a seat at the table.
Attrition marks yet another challenge in an industry dealing with an ongoing pilot shortage.
Bradley Small, who heads the Air Transat contingent of the Air Line Pilots Association, said the airline has lost more than 180 aviators post-COVID, or one in four, many to other airlines with more lucrative contracts.
Last year, Air Canada’s 5,400 pilots negotiated a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years. The increase outstripped major gains won the year before by pilots at the three biggest U.S. airlines, where pay bumps ranged between 34 and 40 per cent — albeit starting from a higher baseline.
In 2023, WestJet pilots notched a 24 per cent pay bump over four years in a deal that was reached hours ahead of the strike deadline.
Last week, Air Transat pilots voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike if necessary, with ballots cast by 98 per cent of eligible pilots.
A 21-day cooling off period that followed conciliation talks ends Wednesday, when the workers can strike or management can impose a lockout.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TRZ, TSX:QBR.B)
— With files from Cassidy McMackon in Toronto
