Tentative agreement ends a tense standoff; airline says operations will return to normal
Air Transat and the union representing its pilots have reached a tentative collective agreement, narrowly avoiding a strike that threatened to shut down the carrier in the middle of the busy December travel season.
The last‑minute deal between Transat A.T. and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents roughly 750 pilots at the airline, came hours before a work stoppage was set to begin. The agreement still requires ratification by union members in an upcoming vote, the ALPA said in a statement.
The airline’s parent company said in a statement to media that the tentative agreement averts a strike that could have started Wednesday, bringing relief to passengers and easing pressure on an already stretched air transport system in the lead‑up to the holidays.
The agreement caps nearly a year of negotiations to replace a pilot contract first signed in 2015, according to BBC News. ALPA leaders had argued that the existing terms fell behind what pilots are earning elsewhere in North America and within other ALPA bargaining units.
Talks reached a breaking point in recent days. The union secured a 99 per cent strike mandate and issued a 72‑hour notice that pilots would stop work if no deal was in place, prompting the leisure carrier to announce it would begin cancelling flights and winding down operations.
Transat rolled out a...
On Saturday 17 January, the government of Iran claimed that the United States is making false accusations against the country in its latest attempt to “fuel tensions” in the region. It dismissed t...