WestJet starts to cancel flights as pilot strike looms, negotiations in stalemate

Photo: The Canadian Press

Members of the Air Line Pilots Association demonstrate outside WestJet headquarters in Calgary.

WestJet has started to cancel flights as talks with the pilots’ union remained at a “critical impasse,” the company said Thursday, jeopardizing travel plans for thousands of passengers ahead of the May long weekend.

Some 1,800 pilots at the carrier and its Swoop subsidiary are poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. ET after the Air Line Pilots Association issued a strike notice Monday.

WestJet issued a statement early Thursday saying negotiations with the union remained “in a stalemate.”

"We remain at a critical impasse with the union and have been left with no choice but to begin taking the painful steps of preparing for the reality of a work stoppage," CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a statement.

WestJet Group is parking the majority of its 737 and 787 fleet in a "measured, phased and safe approach," the statement read. The airline said WestJet Encore, WestJet Link as well as limited 737 flights will continue to operate during this time.

With more than 4,000 flights scheduled over the next seven days, WestJet carries 28 per cent of Canada's domestic market, while Air Canada runs 47 per cent, according to flight data firm Cirium.

The federal labour minister and the government's head mediator as well as WestJet's CEO and the pilots' union leaders have all descended on a hotel near the Toronto airport to work toward a deal.

Bernard Lewall, who heads the union's WestJet contingent, says the workers' issues revolve around pay, job security and scheduling, with pilots earning roughly half of what some of their U.S. counterparts make. The company said Thursday the union's wage expectations were "unreasonable" and would "permanently damage the financial viability of the group's future."

The airline is advising travellers to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport, and to visit WestJet's guest updates web page or Swoop's online information hub for more information regarding flight status and travel changes.

As of early Thursday, WestJet's online daily flight status tracker showed 32 of its 162 listed departures out of its Calgary hub had been cancelled, while 20 of the airline's 50 flights out of Toronto's Pearson airport had also been cancelled.