Air Canada cancels flights before strike that could impact hundreds of thousands
A complete shutdown of the country's largest airline threatens to impact about 130,000 people a day.
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The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants issued a 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday.
Air Canada executives are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a news conference (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
In response, the airline issued a lockout notice.
Mark Nasr, chief operations officer for Air Canada, said the airline has begun a gradual suspension of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations.
'All flights will be paused by Saturday early morning,' he said.
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Mr Nasr said this approach will help facilitate an orderly restart 'which under the best circumstances will take a full week to complete'.
He said a first set of cancellations involving several dozen flights will impact long-haul overseas flights that were due to depart on Thursday night.
'By tomorrow evening we expect to have cancelled flights affecting over 100,000 customers,' Mr Nasr said.
Air Canada executives leave after they are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a press conference (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
'By the time we get to 1am on Saturday morning we will be completely grounded.'
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He said a grounding will affect 25,000 Canadians a day abroad who may become stranded.
They expect 500 flights to be cancelled by the end of Friday.
He said customers whose flights are cancelled will be eligible for a full refund, and it has also made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide alternative travel options 'to the extent possible'.
Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, head of human resources for Air Canada, said their latest offer includes a 38% increase in total compensation including benefits and pensions over four years.
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Air Canada executives are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a press conference (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
The union has said its main sticking points revolve around what it calls flight attendants' 'poverty wages' and unpaid labour when planes are not in the air.
'Despite our best efforts, Air Canada refused to address our core issues,' the union said in a bargaining update posted online.
The union rejected a proposal from the airline to enter a binding arbitration process, saying it prefers to negotiate a deal that its members can then vote on.
Ms Meloul-Wechsler said they have hit an impasse but are still available for talks and consensual arbitration.
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She said that if a deal is not reached, the resulting 'very serious disruptions' would prompt the company to consider asking for government intervention.
Some flight attendants at the airline's news conference on Thursday held up signs that read 'Unpaid work won't fly' and 'Poverty wages = UnCanadian'.
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