Air Transat Cancels Several Flights, But Sees Progress as Strike Clock Ticks Down

As usual, contract negotiations between a Canadian airline and its employees are coming right down to the wire, leaving travel advisors and Canadian travellers in a painful limbo. 

This time it is Air Transat, whose pilots are set to walk off the job at 3 am December 10. Despite both parties saying that significant progress was made during talks yesterday, as of 5 am December 9 there is still no deal.

Air Transat released a statement Monday afternoon saying that yesterday’s flights operated as planned, with some travellers who were scheduled to fly on December 10 reaching their destinations due to four additional flights added.

“For now, flights scheduled for December 8 operate as planned,” the airline said. “Starting today, we are launching a special program to bring back as many travellers as possible.”

“Our priority remains the same: to bring our travellers back home and limit the impact on their travel plans,” the airline said.

Half a dozen flights have been cancelled for today, December 9:

TS938 YUL-CUN

TS939 CUN-YUL

TS426 YYZ-CUN

TS427 CUN-YYZ

TS498 YUL-PUJ

TS499 PUJ-YUL

Capt. Louis-Éric Mongrain, a vice-president at ALPA Canada, told CBC News on Monday that the union is committed to achieving an agreement “before the strike deadline on Wednesday.”

“There’s still a split, but it’s narrowing by the minute. So that’s a good thing,” said Mongrain. 

Andréan Gagné, the senior director of communications, public affairs and corporate responsibility at Air Transat, agreed that there was progress in the talks. But he said the next move would need to come from the union.

“We aim to find a reasonable consensus, and it is up to the union to take a step toward us considering the generous offer we have put on the table,” he told CBC News

Despite the positive sentiments, there is still a gap to close. The airline says its offer increases total compensation, on average, by 59% over five years. Yesterday, the ALPA union called that statement “flatly inaccurate.” 

Today will tell the tale of whether the debt-stressed and financially fragile Air Transat can make a deal that limits the amount of damage done and keeps pilots in the cockpit. There are a lot of Christmas vacations depending on it.