Air Transat says these flights are cancelled as pilots’ strike looms – National

Passengers flying Air Transat on Tuesday will have to deal with flight cancellations as the clock ticks down to an impending pilot strike, the airline said.

Air Transat announced the flight cancellations late Monday night as a strike, led by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), could hit the airline as soon as Wednesday.

On Sunday, the union gave a 72-hour strike notice to the airline.

“This compels us to implement an action plan that includes operating repatriation flights and add capacity on certain flights to bring as many travelers as possible back to Canada, as well as the gradual and orderly shutdown of our operations. As a result, we regret to have to cancel certain flights,” Air Transat said in a statement late Monday night.

The cancelled flights are all international.

They affect two Canadian airports – Toronto Pearson airport (YYZ) and Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport (YUL) – and two international airports – Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) in the Dominican Republic and Cancún International Airport (CUN) in Mexico.

The following flights are cancelled on Tuesday, the airline said:

• Flight TS986 YYZ-PUJ
• Flight TS987 PUJ-YYZ
• Flight TS426 YYZ-CUN
• Flight TS427 CUN-YYZ
• Flight TS498 YUL-PUJ
• Flight TS499 PUJ-YUL

The airline has also launched a “special program” to bring back passengers who might be stranded because of a possible strike later this week.

The program has seen passengers who had return flights scheduled for Wednesday return earlier.

Pilots working for Air Transat voted overwhelmingly to give their union a strike mandate last week.

Pilots could walk off the job as soon as 3 a.m. eastern standard time on Wednesday.

The company said it is instituting a “flexibility policy” for customers travelling over the next five days, “allowing them to change or postpone their travels at no additional cost.”

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The airline said customers whose flights are cancelled will receive a new ticket on the next available flight within 48 hours of their original departure time, if that option exists.

Failing that, the airline said it will issue a refund for the unused portion of the trip.

Customers can refuse the alternative offered by Air Transat and will be entitled to a refund for the unused ticket.

Passengers are encouraged to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport.

In its strike notice on Sunday, the Air Line Pilots Association said the “unproductive bargaining” process and Air Transat management would be responsible for “every canceled flight and stranded passenger.”

“There is still time to avoid a strike but unless significant progress is made at the bargaining table, we will strike if that’s what it takes to achieve a modern contract,” said Bradley Small, chair of ALPA’s Air Transat Master Executive Council.

The previous collective bargaining agreement, which had been in place for a decade, expired in April. The union says wages at the airline have suffered due to the lack of a new collective agreement.

The current contract “lags significantly behind industry standards in Canada and North America,” the union said.

Air Transat called the strike notice “premature.”

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