Possible Air Canada pilot strike will disproportionately affect travellers, former COO says

well there Canada is preparing to suspend operations as early as this weekend talks between the country's largest airline and the union representing thousands of its Pilots are at a stalemate as a strike deadline near a shutdown could affect more than 100,000 passengers daily Dale mnak takes a look at the potential impact Air Canada says it will ground its Fleet of 252 aircrafts if a deal isn't reached with the airline pilots Association or Alpa which represents more than 6200 Pilots at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge the airline says it will happen gradually cancellations and grounding could begin as early as Friday not good news for these Travelers what would happen I would I would be stuck in the US so that that would stink I guess I'm going for a little over two weeks so hopefully it'll all be cleared up by the time I get home Pilots voted 98% in favor of the job action last month starting Sunday the union or Air Canada May issue a 72-hour strike or lockout notice which would trigger the carrier's 3-day windown plan the sticking point is over wages Air Canada Pilots are looking to match their American counterparts who last year secured four-year pay hikes ranging from 34% to 40% Air Canada's CEO says Air Canada believes there is still time to reach an agreement with our pilot group provided Alpa moderates its wage demands which far exceed average Canadian wage increases Alpa members last negotiated a contract in 2014 as somebody who works in aviation I understand their concerns extremely well because they are definitely underpaid for sure everyone's having a hard time putting groceries in the fridge paying the rent uh dealing with mortgage prices uh so I understand completely that people are looking for more Air Canada says all customers who have their flights canceled will be eligible for a full refund they've also been working with other carriers to secure space in the event of flight cancellations although that will be very challenging and since August 27th there's been a Goodwill policy in place for those who have bookings between September 15th and September 23rd to make any changes at no cost and that policy will be expanded if need be you know the carriers are already starting to have increases in fairs uh for Perry people that are looking to buy tickets from September 17th on uh so yeah there is going to be a price increase carriers are going to take advantage uh of an Air Canada shutdown in a statement to CBC Toronto the Alpa says Air Canada should stop threatening to disrupt air travel and come to the bargaining table with serious proposals to keep the flagship Canadian carrier competitive in the global Aviation Market Air Canada anticipates it would take 7 to 10 days for normal operations to resume once the complete shutdown is in place when asked if other staff will get paid in the event Pilots strike or locked out Air Canada says they'll make decisions about Staffing at the appropriate time depending on how the situation evolves Dale manuu CBC News Toronto all right to break down how operate ations just might wind down and the impact on Canadians Duncan D joins me now he's the former Chief Operating Officer of Air Canada he's in New York Duncan thanks a lot for joining us here on Canada tonight thanks for having me Angie so your reaction now or I guess Air Canada's um action forward if you will likely to suspend flights starting next weekend so walk us through this decision this process here we've been here before we have been here before Angie far too often um I think that if you take a look at an airline operation as being a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle what aanda is really trying to do is to make sure that all those pieces of that puzzle remain in the same room within arms length of uh where they are they don't want uh those pieces scattered throughout the house in different rooms uh that will make it much more difficult to put that puzzle back together which is the Air Canada schedule so what's going to happen over the next uh little while is air Candace going to start making plans to bring their aircraft and their Crews to their home bases so that in the event of a strike or a lockout they'll be able to relaunch services that much more quickly so what should Canadians be uh looking out for uh preparing for because clearly this is regardless this is going to have a huge impact it will have a huge impact and it will have a dispropor proportionate impact for uh viewers who reside and are traveling uh east of Toronto so Toronto East to Quebec and Atlantic Canada uh this is going to have a tremendous impact on domestic travel in particular uh and also some uh International and travel to the United States uh I think that when you're talking about 110,000 Travelers every single day over 600 flights every single day when uh you look at the fact that there is absolutely no way that there are 110,000 uh empty seats in the Canadian air transportation system the opportunities for rebooking will be limited speec um you know virtually impossible if you're looking to rebook at the same price you paid uh for your original ticket on Air Canada and certainly very very difficult for those who reside uh Toronto and Eastward so if we look at uh the situation and you and I started things off saying we have we've been here before and not just with Air Canada with other airlines as well this all comes back to uh what we saw in the United States a a salary Gap higher earning for the US uh sort of closing I should say the salary Gap with higher earning for us Pilots Air Canada pilots and other P Canadian Pilots have saying we want the same thing um the last agreement was 10 years ago and of course the union is saying things have changed over 10 years we've clearly seen the cost of living uh going way up so why are we still why are we back at the table when the obvious line has been sort of set here and are you anticipating that there can be a deal reached um when at this stage we're looking at both sides quite far apart at the bargaining table look frankly I'm surprised that uh both sides are as far apart as they are given the fact that we've heard through the media that uh management has already tabled a deal which results in a 30% wage increase over three years so if they're far apart after that kind of a an offer that the media has described you know you kind of Wonder really how how how significant the gulf is between both sides uh let's not forget that WestJet Pilots settled for a 24% increase over four years uh when they accepted an offer and averted a strike a few months ago and so I think that you know Pilots have every right to want more uh there frankly I don't believe that there's a single Canadian uh worker out there who would not love to be paid what an American worker uh was being paid but unfortunately we don't live in that world we live in Canada uh where Canadian Air Travelers pay the freight they're the ones who pay for the tickets and you know we need to ensure that uh there has to be some semblance of um you know uh reality in in the situation and in the case of what's happening at Air Canada one thing I can guarantee viewers is that at the end of this process whether there is a strike or there isn't a strike Air Canada Pilots will be the best paid commercial airline pilots in the country so what are you going to watch for we mentioned WestJet got 24% you're saying the offer on the table from what we understand here in terms of where media reports are is at 30% what are you watching for now um as clearly there's something that's going on there that that's preventing this deal from getting signed Angie having been at the table at this very exact moment I can tell you and viewers that uh this is when the real negotiations the difficult part of the negotiations actually begins they've been at the negotiating table for a year but you know the way the Canadian Labor Relations system works is the negotiations you know really take off in Earnest over the next couple of days and so with what's been reported by the media about what manag has Ted clearly uh the union is going to have to provide a counter to that and hopefully at some point over the next few days before the midnight deadline on Tuesday we will see some movement on both sides to avert a a very very disruptive strike not just to the airline but to the lives of Canadians and communities across this country Duncan we're going to be watching it very closely to see perhaps what could unfold over the next 48 hours Duncan d uh speaking to us from New York appr appreciate it Duncan thank you thanks Andie