An Air Canada Strike Would Require a Week to Resume Normal Operations
More than 5,200 pilots for Air Canada could go on strike Sept. 18, slowing the movement of cargo for customers shipping goods via the airline.
If a complete shutdown occurs in the wake of a strike, it will take seven to 10 days to return to normal operations, even after a settlement with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is reached.
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According to the airline, the parties remain “far apart.” Unless an agreement is reached, either party may issue a 72-hour strike or lockout notice beginning on 12:01 a.m. ET Sunday, which would trigger the carrier’s three-day wind down plan.
Air Canada carries cargo in the belly holds of its aircraft and air freighters, including freight such as perishable or live commercial goods, components for manufacturers and other time-sensitive items.
Already, the airline has begun limiting acceptance of some of these goods given average shipment timelines, restricting the flight of animals as of Tuesday. On Thursday, Air Canada will restrict expedited parcels, high-value cargo worth $1,000 per kilogram, temperature-sensitive products, dangerous goods and pharmaceuticals. Temperature-sensitive perishables have a deadline of Sunday.
General cargo and e-commerce shipments don’t have an early stop date ahead of the strike. The airline said the 14-day booking window continues to apply, with standard acceptance times.
Michael Rousseau, president and CEO of Air Canada, said in a statement that a managed shutdown is “the only responsible course available to us.”
“Air Canada believes there is still time to reach an agreement with our pilot group, provided ALPA moderates its wage demands which far exceed average Canadian wage increases,” said Rousseau. “However, Canadians have recently seen the chaos abrupt airline shutdowns cause for travelers, which obliges us to do everything we can to protect our customers from an increasingly likely work stoppage.”
The ALPA pilots voted overwhelmingly for strike action on Aug. 22, with 98 percent of participants in favor of the job action.
Negotiations for a new agreement between both sides began in June 2023. Talks entered private mediation in January 2024 and lasted until June 2024, at which point the union filed a notice of dispute and enter conciliation because the two sides were unable to reach a new collective agreement.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Air Canada has offered to boost the pay of the ALPA pilots by roughly 30 percent within the next three years, including a minimum 20 percent increase upfront. Pilots with one to four years of service would receive more.
The last contract, a 10-year deal that was ratified in 2014, provided pay increases of about 2 percent annually.
“It is nearly a year since our stale and outdated contract expired,” said first officer Charlene Hudy, Air Canada ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC) chair, during the event. “We want to reach an agreement with Air Canada to avert a strike, and although we made some progress in conciliation, management continues to force us closer to a strike position by not listening to our most pressing needs at the negotiating table regarding fair compensation, respectable retirement benefits, and quality-of-life improvements.”
Air Canada called the union “inflexible on its unreasonable wage demands,” although the airline said a tentative agreement has been reached on a large number of items for a new collective deal.
The country already endured a brief hiccup in its supply chain last month when Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) locked out 9,300 union rail workers before they could go on strike. That nationwide rail shutdown lasted less than a day before the Canadian federal government stepped in, forcing both sides back to work and sending them to an arbitration process to hash out a new contract.
Air Canada operates 252 aircraft in 47 countries, including 35 widebody and freighter flights to the U.S. each week. The airline began operating a 767 freighter to Chicago O’Hare airport from Toronto three times per week in early June, complementing the other freighter destinations in the U.S.: Atlanta, Los Angeles and Miami.
The aircraft will have to be repositioned or repatriated along with their crews, according to Air Canada.
“By optimally positioning aircraft ahead of a possible disruption, Air Canada will be able to more quickly restore regular service to customers having travel plans at that time,” the company said.
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