Air Canada started the cancellation of its flights on Thursday morning for the strike of its on -board agents which is scheduled to start on Saturday morning, reports the Journal de Montréal.
“We have been preparing our contingency plans for several weeks,” said Mark Nasr, vice-president and chief operations of Air Canada, during a press briefing held in Toronto on Thursday morning.
The airline was to take stock of the imminent strike of the Canadian Public Service Syndicate (SCFP), which represents its on -board agents, and the cancellations of future flights because of the conflict.
Recall that Air Canada issued a lockout opinion yesterday, in response to the strike notice sent by the union.
All flights will be canceled and suspended by Saturday morning, said Mark Nasr.
“We know that this is a difficult situation and regret the impact it will have,” he added. Our top priority is to help our customers. »»
According to him, it was the international flights that were to take off in the evening that will be the first to be canceled. Air Canada Express flights will however be maintained.
About 500 flights are expected to be canceled by Friday evening.
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A 5 -day Max conflict, according to an expert
In addition, the conflict between Air Canada and its on -board agents should last a maximum of five days, according to John Gradek, former manager at Air Canada and aviation expert.
“I think it will last a maximum of 5 days,” he said to LCN, pointing to a company’s strategy that relies on government intervention rather than real negotiations.
“There was no negotiation before, that’s the problem. Was Air Canada really serious in negotiations? “, He questioned, saying that the Air Canada on-board agents were” really underestimated “.
“The salary catching up at Air Canada would be 34% to 38% compared to Transat,” he said.
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