About 500 Air Canada flights will be canceled by Friday evening, affecting more than 100,000 passengers, while transporter customers face limited options.
• Read also: Air Canada conflict: the airline’s press briefing interrupted by on -board agents
“It is unlikely that we can offer you another flight in an acceptable period,” admitted Mark Nasr, vice-president of Air Canada operations during a press briefing Thursday morning, in Toronto.
The airline has hammered this argument for 20 minutes: the summer period complicates everything. “We are going to find flights, we will compensate for our customers, but thefts are full at this time of the year,” insisted Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, general vice-president and head of human resources.
Air Canada began gradually stopping its activities on Thursday, and “all [ses] Flights will be suspended by Saturday morning, “said Nasr, before adding that the resumption of normal activities will take” at least a week “.
The first cancellations mainly concern international flights that were to take off in the evening on Thursday. About 500 flights are expected to be canceled by Friday evening.
Rejected
Before the recovery, the conflict must be resolved. “Our last offer was 38% including profits and pensions over 4 years,” said Arielle Meloul-Wechsler on Thursday morning.
The union calculates rather that the proposal is a salary increase of 17.8% over four years and requires 34% to 38%, as with Transat.
The company criticizes the Canadian Public Service Syndicate (SCFP) for “wasted 10 days in the last 21 days by refusing to negotiate”.
The union disputes this version. “Air Canada is shining by its absence at the negotiating table for almost a whole day,” the SCFP replied in a statement.
The conflict relates in particular to the remuneration of 35 hours per month of working on the soil currently unpaid.
John Gradek, aviation expert at McGill University and former Air Canada executive, estimates that the salary catch -up of the 10,000 on -board agents will cost $ 200 million to Air Canada and that its operations stop $ 50 million a day.
Travelers trapped
Now thousands of Canadians are blocked abroad. “We advise you to use the flexible reservation modification policy which allows you to modify your flight at no additional cost,” said an email sent by Air Canada to a client currently in Cuba and that the newspaper has consulted.
The company specifies that “the maximum capacity is limited”, making the spare solutions almost nonexistent.
Worse, several travel insurers consider that they do not have to compensate travelers because “the risk of a strike was real” since the union vote at 99.7 % at the end of July.
Air Canada offers only two options: a full refund or a travel credit for a later date between August 21 and September 12. “We ask our customers not to come to the airport unless they have a confirmed theft,” insisted Mr. Nasr on Thursday morning, anticipating extended waiting times in service centers.
The company asked for the intervention of the federal government to impose enforceable arbitration, but Ottawa has not yet responded.
