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Passengers flying with Air Canada can breathe a sigh of relief after the airline reached a last-minute agreement with its pilots, narrowly averting a significant disruption that would have impacted more than 110,000 travelers per day.
The tentative four-year deal, struck in the early hours of Sunday, forestalled a potential strike or lockout that had been looming for weeks. Without the agreement, Air Canada had been prepared to gradually cancel flights before completely halting operations as early as 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, September 18.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), representing over 5,200 Air Canada pilots, has been negotiating for the past 15 months, seeking wage increases and improvements in work rules. Air Canada’s pilots sought to close the pay gap with U.S. counterparts. U.S. pilot wages increased substantially over the past couple of years, though airline demand for pilots has since abated.
