Air Transat, pilots' union reach tentative deal to avert strike, airline's parent company says
CBC
Air Transat passengers breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday evening after the company reached a tentative deal with its pilot union, narrowly avoiding a strike on the cusp of the busy holiday travel period.
Transat A.T. Inc., which owns the leisure airline, found common ground with the Air Line Pilots Association just eight hours before the union's strike deadline.
The travel company immediately sought to start ramping up sun flights after cancelling at least 18 trips scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in a precautionary move that affected thousands of travellers.
Neither the company nor the union representing around 750 Air Transat pilots released details of the tentative agreement, which the membership will vote on in the coming days.
Annick Guerard, Transat president and CEO, said the airline "greatly preferred" to avoid the threat of a work stoppage.
"We are aware that this period has created significant uncertainty, and we extend our sincerest apologies to our customers whose flights were disrupted in recent days," she said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
"Our priority now is to quickly restore our operations and deliver on our commitment to provide service that meets our standards."
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) sought a new agreement that boosts wages, job security and quality of life following big gains for aviators at Air Canada and WestJet over the past two years.
Capt. Bradley Small, chair of the Air Transat ALPA master executive council, said the current pilot contract lags behind industry standards in North America.
"We believe this new agreement meets the needs of today's profession, consistent with collective agreements other ALPA-represented pilot groups are signing with their employers," Small said in a statement.
The showdown comes at a particularly fraught time for the airline as it struggles to manage a large debt load, turn an annual profit for the first time since 2018 and fend off a coup attempt from an activist investor.
Last week, media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau, who owns 9.5 per cent of Transat — its second-biggest shareholder — demanded a board shakeup and strategic overhaul.
The proposal would see Péladeau's head of telecommunications giant at Quebecor Inc. replace Transat chair Susan Kudzman, with Péladeau also gaining a seat on the board.
Meanwhile, Transat's flight schedule was severely disrupted this week after it began to cancel flights in anticipation of a possible work stoppage.
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