Sault Air Canada flights to Toronto a go if labour dispute begins

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Air Canada will begin suspending flights this weekend as a strike deadline looms.  

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Pilots will be in a legal strike position on Sept. 17, but it is expected that the airline will begin gearing down its operations as early as Sunday if negotiations with the pilot union continue to stall.  

The dispute won’t affect passengers travelling on Air Canada Jazz flights from Sault Ste. Marie to Toronto, said Terry Bos, CAO of the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corp.  

“There are subsidiaries of Air Canada that fly here, so it won’t affect those travelling to Toronto, but if you’re going beyond there, you could be impacted,” Bos said.  

Air Canada’s 5,200 pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, and the country’s largest airline employer are stalled over wage demands.  

Pilots want to see wages increase, as a result of inflationary pressures and to get closer to par with their U.S. counterparts and argue Air Canada is posting record profits, rewarding its top executives but doesn’t want to pay pilots.  

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Air Canada operates about 670 flights daily – with more than 100,000 passengers — and is expected to slow down its operations, including Air Canada Rouge, over a three-day period, beginning Sept. 15 unless an agreement is reached.  

Air Canada’s website notes that “some activities would need to start as early as Fri. Sept. 13, including the cancellation of some holiday packages and the grounding of some aircraft.” 

The three-day period allows the union or company to issue a 72-hour strike notice or lockout notice that would begin the wind down plan.  

The airline has said Air Canada Express flights will continue to operate, as third-party carriers Jazz and PAL Airlines provide the services. 

But regional partners only carry about 20 per cent of Air Canada’s daily customers, many of whom use the service to connect to larger Air Canada flights elsewhere. 

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Bos said the Sault Airport’s administration department hasn’t been fielding phone calls of concern but noted that travellers should check the Air Canada website or call them directly with their questions or concerns.  

“I know Air Canada staff here are preparing to deal with flights that carry on beyond Toronto,” he said.  

Another blow to the air industry is a blow to smaller airports like the Sault’s, which haven’t fully recovered from the loss of travel since the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“Passenger numbers over the past eight months have been on a downward trend and this is something we’re not looking forward to,” Bos said. “If passengers are cancelling their trips beyond Toronto, then that will have a negative impact on us too if they don’t use that first leg” of the trip. 

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In fact, the most recent statistics show that passenger travel through the Sault Airport in August was down 11.6 per cent from August 2023 and 30 per cent down from pre-pandemic August 2019 levels.  

The data shows 14,515 passengers moved through the airport, down from 16,425 passengers the year prior.  

If Air Canada does wind down its operations for a labour dispute, it could take more than a week to resume normal operations once a dispute is settled. 

All travellers with cancelled flights would be notified and eligible for a full refund if a labour dispute occurs.  

Air Canada has implemented a temporary policy which allows travellers to change their flights for free under certain conditions.  

The policy applies to those who purchased their tickets or redeemed points for an Aeroplan flight reward no later than Sept. 9, for travel between Sept. 15-23, 2024.  

Individuals can also retrieve their booking to change their flight – free of charge – to another date if travelling between Sept. 9-14 and or between Sept. 24-Nov. 30.  

“Rest assured that we will notify you of any impact to your flight itinerary in advance of your travel,” the Air Canada website reads. 

Air Canada is the country’s largest airline and the largest provider of scheduled passenger services in the Canadian market, the Canada-U.S. transborder market and the international market to and from Canada.  

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