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Parent company Air Transat says it avoided a strike after reaching a preliminary agreement with pilots on Tuesday night.
The leisure airline was canceling flights and scaling back operations ahead of a possible shutdown affecting thousands of travellers.
Neither Transat AT Inc. nor the union representing about 750 Air Transat pilots disclosed details of the tentative agreement.
Annick Guerard, Transat's president and CEO, said the airline would “prefer” to avoid the threat of a strike.
“We recognize that this period has created significant uncertainty and we sincerely apologize to our customers whose flights have been disrupted in recent days,” she said in a statement Tuesday evening.
“Our priority now is to quickly restore our operations and meet our obligations to provide services that meet our standards.”
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) was seeking a new contract that would improve pay, job security and quality of life following great success for aviators at Air Canada and WestJet over the past two years.
Capt. Bradley Small, chairman of Air Transat ALPA's chief executive board, said the current pilot contract lags behind industry standards in North America.
“We believe this new agreement meets the needs of today's profession and is consistent with the collective bargaining agreements that other pilot groups represented by ALPA have signed with their employers,” Small said in a statement.
Union members are expected to vote on the agreement in the coming days.
Transat's flight schedule was severely disrupted this week after the company began canceling flights in anticipation of a labor standoff.
Shareholders demand reshuffle of the board of directors
The dispute comes at a particularly difficult time for the airline as it struggles to cope with a heavy debt load and turn an annual profit for the first time since 2018.
Air Transat announced on Sunday it would phase out its operations over the next three days in response to a 72-hour strike issued by the union representing its 750 pilots. Labor lawyer Sandeep Gokhale discusses the situation on Hanomansing Tonight.
Last week, media tycoon Pierre Carl Peladeau, who owns 9.5 percent of Transat – its second-largest shareholder – demanded a reshuffle of the board of directors and a review of strategy.
According to the proposal, the head of telecommunications giant Quebecor Inc. Péladeau will replace Transat Chairman Susan Kudzman, and Péladeau will also receive a seat on the board of directors.
By Tuesday afternoon, Transat had canceled more than a dozen flights for that day and Wednesday.
Canceled trips included sunny destinations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru and Spain, as well as London and Paris. All 18 flights were scheduled to take off or land in Toronto or Montreal.
Air Transat said it had arranged seven additional flights on Monday and Tuesday to bring some passengers back from holiday.
The carrier's active fleet of approximately 40 aircraft carries tens of thousands of passengers on more than 500 flights weekly.
ALPA announced a 72-hour strike on Sunday. Transat said a potential strike or lockout could begin as early as 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
