No Disruption of Service at Air Canada
08-Mar-2012 Canada's Minister of Labour, the Hon. Lisa Raitt, has issued a referral pursuant to the Canada Labour Code, to determine the activities that Air Canada may be required to maintain as relates to the health and safety of Canadians.
As a result of this CIRB referral, the IAMAW cannot commence a strike and Air Canada cannot lock out its pilots at least until this matter has been determined by the Board. The strike deadline by the IAMAW and Air Canada's lockout notice to ACPA, both originally scheduled for 00:01 am ET on Monday March 12, 2012, have therefore no effect.
There will therefore be no disruption of service and Air Canada's full schedule remains unchanged.
We thank our customers for their patience and loyalty during this time. Customers should continue to book with confidence.
Air Canada encourages customers to visit aircanada.com for flight information and self service booking tools to avoid longer call centre wait times due to a higher volume of calls than usual.
Air Canada will continue to provide updates as developments warrant.
The IAMAW represents Air Canada's 8,600 mechanics, baggage handlers and cargo agents. ACPA represents the airline's 3,000 pilots.
Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 180 destinations on five continents. Canada's flag carrier is the 15th largest commercial airline in the world and in 2011 served more than 33 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 60 Canadian cities, 57 destinations in the United States and 63 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,290 destinations in 189 countries. In 2011, Air Canada was ranked Best International Airline in North America in a worldwide survey of more than 18 million airline passengers conducted by independent research firm Skytrax.