Air Canada Cuts Hundreds of Management Positions
by Bruce Parkinson
Air Canada and its flight attendants are back at the bargaining table.
On the same day it announced its largest increase in capacity from Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport in 35 years, Air Canada confirmed it is cutting management staff positions totalling about 1% of its workforce.
With an estimated employee count of around 40,000, that would amount to about 400 positions.
“As a global company, Air Canada regularly reviews its resources and processes to ensure they are optimized to efficiently support business operations and its customers,” said Christophe Hennebelle, VP Corporate Communications, in a written statement.
“We are communicating directly to affected employees and therefore have no additional details to provide”, Peter Fitzpatrick, head of communications at Air Canada, told Travel Market Report Canada.
The news came at the same time the airline unveiled major U.S. and domestic service expansions at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport which will see new high-frequency routes to LGA, BOS, ORD and IAD beginning next spring. The new routes, along with an increase in frequency on major domestic routes from the airport, will add about 250,000 seats from YYZ.
Air Canada has had a tumultuous year, with the low point a nearly four-day flight attendant strike that snarled the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of Canadians during the August peak travel season.
The airline estimated the financial impact of the strike at more than $375 million. Air Canada will report its third-quarter 2025 results in a conference call for analysts and investors on November 5.
