“Hope for the best, plan for the worst”: ACTA’s Wendy Paradis on Air Canada’s looming pilot strike

When ACTA President Wendy Paradis brought up Air Canada’s looming strike deadline at yesterday’s travel industry summit in Toronto, travel advisors in the room began to shake.

Addressing more than 500 travel professionals on a stage at the Toronto Congress Centre Thursday morning (Sept. 12), Paradis addressed “the elephant in room” – the fact that Air Canada could start cancelling flights ahead of Sunday’s strike deadline as talks with its pilots’ union near an impasse.

As PAX previously reported, Paradis urged Air Canada, the [Air Line Pilots Association] union and federal government to work hard together and come to a resolution.

“Our message is to negotiate and come to a resolution as soon as possible,” she told the room.

READ MORE: ACTA kicks off Summit in Toronto, urges Air Canada & union to find a resolution ASAP

Speaking with PAX later that morning, Paradis provided further comment, saying that “everybody is really stressed about this.”

“Whether you are a travel advisor, or you work for an airline, there’s a tremendous amount of rework going on. Capacity is getting tighter and tighter every day. We’re hearing a lot of anxiety.”

The number one priority for travel advisors, at this stage of the game, is “protecting clients on other flights,” she said.

The clock is ticking

Unless a deal is reached with the ALPA, Air Canada’s 5,200 pilots will be in legal strike position on Sept. 18. But the impacts will be felt sooner if negotiations continue to stall.

Earlier this week, Air Canada released contingency plans to suspend its flights, saying that a 72-hour strike or lockout notice could be issued as early as Sunday, Sept. 15.

READ MORE: Navigating Air Canada’s potential strike has been “a complete nightmare,” says travel advisor

At that point, the airline would begin a three-day wind down plan of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge. During this process, flights would be cancelled over three days, with a complete shutdown as early as 00:01 EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Some disruptions, however, could start as early as today (Friday, September 13), including the cancellation of some holiday packages and the grounding of some aircraft, Air Canada said previously.

This doesn’t seem to be the case (yet), however. In an update shared with PAX Friday morning, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said the airline has yet to cancel any flights today due to a potential strike.

“Things are really tightening up”

If Air Canada’s pilots do take labour action, it will mark the Canadian travel industry’s third strike-related disruption this year, adding to similar events that took place at WestJet and VIA Rail earlier this year.

On Aug 27, Air Canada posted a goodwill policy (which one travel advisor has scrutinized) that allows travellers to change their flight for free for travel between Sept. 15 and Sept. 23, 2024.

Paradis believes a number of travel advisors took advantage of this offer to proactively rebook their clients who had imminent flights with Air Canada.

"Based on our feedback, travel agencies, for the most part, were able to find alternatives,” Paradis said. “Not all, but there were other flights available.”

That was weeks ago, however, when the notion of Air Canada’s pilots actually walking off the job had only just started to make headlines. Now that the strike deadline is days away, “things are really tightening up,” Paradis said.

“The sheer amount of changes…it’s a lot,” she said.

Ottawa should “be prepared to intervene”

During ACTA’s trade show yesterday, Air Canada’s CEO Michael Rousseau shared an update on the situation – and it wasn’t positive news.

He said that while Air Canada remains committed to reaching a settlement with ALPA, the federal government should “be prepared to intervene” if talks fail before any travel disruption starts.

According to an Air Canada press release, a tentative agreement has been reached on just 70 per cent of the more than 1,000 proposed changes suggested by ALPA.

Air Canada says it has offered “unprecedented wage increases” – increases of up to 30 per cent – which the union has refused, citing U.S.-based wage levels.

“We are taking all measures to mitigate any impact, but the reality is even a short work stoppage at Air Canada could, given the complexity of our business operating on a global scale, cause prolonged disruption for customers,” Rousseau said.

A disruption would impact thousands of travellers. Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operate close to 670 daily flights (on average) and carry more than 110,000 passengers within Canada and internationally.

No surprises

Paradis doesn’t think it’s possible for anyone beyond the negotiating table to predict how things will play out over the next few days.

But she did offer up some context, saying that “this is how labour negotiations go.”

“I'm not an expert in this, but there's no surprises here as far as how this is ramping up,” she said.

Case in point: WestJet’s pilot resolution, last year, was a down-to-the-wire deal announced in the wee hours of the morning.

Its mechanics strike this past summer, however, caused greater damage as maintenance engineers (AMEs) and tech ops walked off the job just as the Canada Day long weekend began. This action forced WestJet to park 130 aircraft at 13 airports, leading to more than 1,000 cancelled flights.

Paradis’ advice to travel advisors, right now, is to “hope for the best, but plan for the worst.”

READ MORE: ACTA 2024 award recipients announced at Toronto Summit

“I think it's hard to predict anything, but I do believe that the pilots and Air Canada are both motivated for a solution. Can they find a sweet spot before the deadline? Let’s hope so,” she said.  

Come together

ACTA’s 2024 Eastern Canada Travel Industry Summit is one of three events happening this month. Upcoming Summits will be held in Richmond, B.C. (Sept. 19) and in Montreal (Sept. 25).

Thursday’s event was packed with panel discussions, interviews with industry leaders, and networking opportunities with executives from across the globe.

ACTA also announced the winners of its 2024 national awards, which PAX has covered here.

Advocacy priorities

Paradis shared some of ACTA’s current priories, which includes working with the Competition Bureau’s study on airline competition in Canada, NDC implementation (and the impacts it has on travel agencies and travel advisors), and travel supplier best practices.

“We’re working with suppliers to ensure timely commission payments, that commission is paid on cancelled booking, and the reduction of non-commissionable fees,” she said.

Travel fraud education and prevention and Canada Revenue Agency’s audits of independent travel advisors (ITAs) are other areas of focus.

Paradis said ACTA won’t involve itself with individual ITA challenges with the CRA.

However: “We are watching to see if ACTA needs to step in,” she said. “We read every single email about this, and document them to ensure ITAs are not being treated unfairly.”

Trends shaping travel today

While economic headwinds (like the weakening dollar, the impact of the U.S. election, fuel costs and geopolitical factors) are softening the demand for travel in some areas, Paradis told the crowd that “overall, the future is definitely bright.”

“If you look at the numbers from the World Travel & Tourism Council, [the industry] is robust for demand and revenue. We’re poised for growth over the next ten years,” she said.

Paradis went on to review some of the trends that are shaping travel today, citing various sources, from consortiums to travel associations.

This includes sustainable and eco-friendly travel, the desire to avoid places that are struggling with overtourism and explore new destinations (“Gone is the desire to follow the crowd,” she said), the demand for experiences over “things,” the rise of bleisure and workcations (including remote work), personalized luxury and the need for tech-enhanced experiences.

The demand for cruises – especially river and expedition voyages – is also rising, Paradis noted.

One demographic to watch for are millennials – those who were born between 1981-1996 – as this group is “prioritizing travel over other things,” Paradis said.

But don’t discount Generation X (those born between 1965-1980) or Baby Boomers (born between 1946 – 1964) either, she said.

Baby Boomers, in particular, are the ones spending money on their vacations, Paradis said.

“They still hold the bulk of wealth when it comes to travellers,” she said.

To see more pictures from ACTA's travel industry summit, visit and "like" PAX's Facebook page here. 

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.