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Empty Air Transat check-in counters at the Montreal Airport on Monday.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
The push by Air Transat TRZ-T pilots to bring their wages as close as possible to salaries of Air Canada AC-T pilots is part of a broader campaign by North American airline unions to set a new standard of equal pay, regardless of employer.
Air Transat and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents its 750 pilots, are in tense negotiations over a new contract, with the possibility of a strike beginning early Wednesday if the two sides don’t reach a deal by then. On Monday afternoon, both sides said some progress was made overnight toward reaching an agreement. Air Transat said it would begin suspending flights on Monday, with a full shutdown planned for Tuesday.
At the heart of the dispute is compensation: The ALPA has said it wants Air Transat to match the wages of Air Canada pilots, who got a 42-per-cent increase in wages over four years in 2024, after coming out of a 10-year contract. Air Transat’s previous contract with its pilots stretched 10 years as well, but they are paid substantially less than Air Canada pilots, according to the union. The airline has offered wage increases totalling 59 per cent over five years, which the union rejected over the weekend, when it gave the airline a 72-hour strike notice.
“We are all professional airline pilots bringing value to the work force and there should not be such major discrepancies between what pilots get paid flying the same planes on different airlines,” Louis-Éric Mongrain, vice-president of administration and finance at ALPA Canada, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
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When Air Canada flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees briefly went on strike in August, they were pushing for wage equality with their counterparts at Air Transat, who had secured salary increases of 30 per cent over five years in 2024, making them the highest-paid flight attendants in the country.
In September, Air Canada flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement between CUPE and the national carrier over the issue of wages. (They had secured a significant win on ground pay – compensation for work done predeparture, which was not subject to ratification.) Their hourly compensation is now being decided upon by arbitrators at the federal labour board.
Stephanie Ross, an associate professor of labour studies at McMaster University, said there is greater co-ordination among pilots and flight attendants recently to fight for sector-wide standards. “The fact that Air Canada pilots have only recently voted to join ALPA makes this kind of sectoral co-ordination and unity more likely, because they are now in the same organization as Air Transat pilots,” she said. (Air Canada pilots voted to join the ALPA in 2023, whereas Air Transat pilots joined in 1999.)
Pilots’ wages are complex and varied. They are generally paid high five-figure and six-figure salaries on most major, non-budget North American airlines, but that depends on the size of plane they fly, the length of the flight and the cumulative number of flying hours over a pilot’s career. At Air Canada, for example, pilot salaries can range from about $75,000 to $360,000.
Mr. Mongrain, an Air Transat captain, said the airline’s pilots generally get paid less, but he would not divulge details of pilot pay scales because the union was in negotiations. He noted that a key concern is wage gaps between pilots and co-pilots. “There are first officers flying the same airplane as I do on Air Canada, earning more than I do. That gives you the idea of the split,” he said.
Steven Tufts, an associate professor of labour geography at York University, believes that the ALPA is also trying to establish a pattern of negotiating for other transportation workers across the federal sector, especially flight attendants. “If the Transat pilots can mimic the pattern that they set with Air Canada pilots last year, it could be easier for Air Transat flight attendants to get a similar deal as their counterparts at Air Canada when they begin negotiating next year,” he said.
Industry groups that represent large federal employers are closely watching this labour dispute, particularly as sector-wide demands permeate negotiations in the airline space. “It is unrealistic to suggest that Air Transat can afford to match the compensation of bigger carriers, given its fleet size and business model,” said Daniel Safayeni, president and chief executive officer of FETCO (Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communications), a business lobby group.
“In the long run, if labour costs increase for smaller players, the industry will consolidate and that will be bad for consumers.”
