Canadian air travel in 2024 was marked by tense contract negotiations and looming job action by airline employees that left travellers anxious about their travel plans and in some cases scrambling to find alternate ways to get where they were headed. 2025 is kicking off with the continued theme, as Air Transat pilots, represented by the Air Transat Master Executive Council (MEC) of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) filed notice with Air Transat management on Jan. 6th, 2025 of their intent to negotiate a new collective agreement.
The formal notice is the first step in opening negotiations and is required under the Canadian Labour Code.
“Our pilot group is united, and we want management to know that we are ready to fight for a contract that addresses the concerns of our pilots and brings stability to our airline,” says Capt. Bradley Small, Air Transat MEC chair.
The current collective agreement has been in place since 2015. Air Transat pilots are looking to bring the new agreement into line with “the current standard within Canada’s aviation sector, similar to those recently negotiated by Air Canada and WestJet,” says Small.
A statement from ALPA cites employment protection, salary conditions, pilot group insurance, and retirement conditions as main points the pilots have tasked their leadership and negotiation teams with addressing. The ALPA, which as the world’s largest airline pilot union represents more than 79,000 pilots at 42 North American airlines, indicates these are areas that have fallen far behind other Canadian airlines, and states Air Transat pilots are “lacking career progression and improved quality-of-life provisions.”
Air Transat pilots fly over 2.5 million passengers annually to nearly 60 destinations in 30 countries.