Some 1,800 pilots at the carrier and its Swoop subsidiary are poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. MT after the Air Line Pilots Association served a strike notice Monday."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 release.
So far, 29 flights or eight per cent of those scheduled on Friday have been cancelled. Passengers are now unable to make online bookings for WestJet flights on major routes such as Calgary-Vancouver and Toronto-Calgary until Tuesday. The fallout could be"extremely damaging to the WestJet brand," as well as to pilots' careers, Dee said.
"It's going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation. The executive team is split into two: one will be focused on the negotiations and managing that from a strategic perspective; the other team will be focused on winding down the parts of the airline ... and maintaining the parts of the airline that need to be maintained," Dee said.