Air Transat says a 72-hour strike notice issued by its pilots is “premature.”
Dave Bourdages, vice-president of flight operations with Air Transat, told CTV News Channel Sunday that the airline has been “fully engaged” in negotiations with the union.
“We think it impacts – unnecessarily – our passengers,” Bourdages said. “They have travel plans at this time of year. It’s bringing uncertainty as to how people are going to be able to reach loved ones.”
The strike notice has forced the company to deploy a new special-operations plan that will help bring all its passengers back into the country over the next three days, he added.
Meanwhile, starting Monday, the airline is planning to “add capacity” to the market to aid the travel of its customers.
“We are offering our passengers a flexibility plan,” Bourdages said.
Air Transat is offering credit to the passengers who want to make changes to their travel plans so that they can make different arrangements.
However, Bourdages said that the “large” part of the collective agreement that comes to the normative clauses is done, but areas including benefits, insurance and salaries are still under discussion.
He added that the company thinks the current offer of a 59 per cent increase in the pilots’ salaries over the next five years is “very generous.”
“It’s in line with the gap that we felt that we needed to bridge, to be in line with the Canadian market,” Bourdages said. “It’s also in line with our business model. We are a leisure airline, and what we want to be and remain, is a company that provides affordable travel to our passengers.”
According to Bourdages, the current offer recognizes the pilots’ work and effort, and the company is waiting for the union to come back to the table to continue negotiations until an agreement is reached.
“We remain confident that through negotiations, we can come to an agreement with the pilot union,” he said.
In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Air Transat said it was “regrettable” that the union “expressed such indifference” towards the airline, their employees and their clients during the holiday season, calling the strike notice a “reckless decision.”
“The union’s demands are considered unreasonable, and its premature actions carry serious consequences for customers, the company, and its 4,300 other employees,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the union has said that the strike notice was triggered after 50 days of unproductive negotiations with the airline present only 25 per cent of the time, according to Capt. Bradley Small, Air Transat master executive chairman of the Airline Pilots Association.
Small told CTV News channel on Sunday that after a 60-day reconciliation period and a 21-day cooling-off period, no fair agreement has been reached between both parties, leading to the strike.
“Our collective agreement dates back to 10 years, so there’s 10 years of catch-up to do,” he said. “We’re trying to bring compensation up to date, along with our pension, benefits, and also one of the most important items, job security.”
The union has been extremely “responsible” and “engaged” at the table, Small added, saying it is ready to work through an agreement so that passengers are not affected.
According to him, the union has made “numerous concessions” since the 2020 expiration of the collective agreement, which was to be renewed.
“Unfortunately, there was an acquisition attempt by Air Canada, which left us unable to negotiate a full collective agreement,” Small said.
Soon after, COVID-19 emerged, and the union lost 180 pilots to other companies due to job conditions and job security concerns.
“Our mandate is to make sure that this company, or this union is attractive for pilots to join,” he added. “But most importantly also to retain all the experience and the pilots we have working for us right now.”
