Air Canada potential pilots' strike would ground 1,000 flights a day. How worried should Canadians be?

Pilots at Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline, could walk off the job as early as Sept. 17, after 98% voted in favour of giving their union a strike mandate. Here’s what that would mean for travellers. Charlene Hudy, head of the Air Canada contingent of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), told The Canadian Press that wages are a major issue for the membership. Last year, WestJet, the country’s second largest airline, agreed to a contract that included a 24% compensation bump over four years. Over the last year and a half, new contracts have been signed between the four biggest U.S. airlines and their pilots, meaning some of those workers now make roughly double what Air Canada pilots are earning. “We all fly passengers under the Star Alliance,” Hudy said. “So we’re flying the same passengers in the same airspace on some of the very same routes, and those pilots are being compensated dramatically more than us.” The current collective agreement dates back to 2014, and expired last September. ALPA, which represents more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots, has been negotiating with the airline with the help of a federal conciliator since June 2023, The Canadian Press reports. Those talks are scheduled to end Monday, with a three-week cooling-off period meaning a strike could begin on Sept. 17 at the earliest.<br/>