May 27, 2019 at 1:00 PM
It has been said many times that the constant we can count on within the airline industry is perpetual change.
Unifor members at Air Canada have been through a period of relative stability in the past six years with the introduction of Rouge being the most significant change within that period. Other airlines such as Jetlines and Swoop have endeavored to enter the market place with some success, while other airlines such as Greyhound Air could not even get off the ground.
On May 16th, news broke that Air Canada was involved in "exclusive negations" to purchase Montreal-based Air Transat. The leisure airline – which has operating bases in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Quebec City – services more than 60 destinations in 25 countries.
Air Canada has until mid-June, with potential for extensions, to carry out its due diligence and determine if they wish to proceed with the purchase of all outstanding shares. If Air Canada does plan to proceed, there are regulatory approvals and shareholder approvals that would have to take place before the purchase could be completed.
This uncertainty has led to some speculation of how such a purchase would affect Unifor members. To be clear, we are not yet certain of Air Canada's intentions around merging Air Transat into its own operations, or having Air Transat operate as a stand-alone business unit.
Air Transat does not have its own customer sales and service agent staff. The Company currently contracts out this work to third-tier ground handlers. In the event of a merger, any additional work would fall under the scope language of our collective agreement and would add more work to our bargaining unit. Therefore, at the moment, we do not foresee any negative impact on our members should this transaction proceed.
Unifor will provide more information as it comes available.
For more information, please contact your Air Canada Bargaining Committee Representative
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