Air Transat’s parent company says it has steered clear of a strike after reaching a tentative deal with pilots Tuesday evening.
The leisure airline had been cancelling flights and winding down operations ahead of the possible work stoppage, affecting thousands of travellers.
In a news release, Transat A.T. Inc. said the agreement “lifts the risk of a strike and now allows its customers to travel with peace of mind.”
Neither the company nor the union representing around 750 Air Transat pilots released details of the tentative agreement.
The Air Line Pilots Association was aiming for a new contract that boosts wages, job security and quality of life following big gains for aviators at Air Canada and WestJet over the past two years.
Transat’s flight schedule was severely disrupted this week after it began to cancel flights in anticipation of a labour standoff.
The showdown comes at a particularly fraught time for the airline as it struggles to manage a large debt load, fend off a takeover attempt from an activist investor and turn an annual profit for the first time since 2018.
