Air Canada employees are the latest workers to make their grievances with their employer public.
Some 200 Air Canada pilots holding signs held a silent demonstration outside Montreal’s Trudeau international airport Monday morning.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which is holding the protest, is currently in contract negotiations.
All pilots involved were off duty, according to association officials, who said no flights were delayed in the process.
The protest was done as a pressure tactic that coincided with Air Canada’s unveiling of its positive quarterly results.
Air Canada pilots have been fighting for better job security, increased wages and improved aviation safety for the last few weeks as part of the bargaining process, Charlene Hudy of the Air Line Pilots Association said.
Similar demonstrations were held in Calgary over the weekend.
The association’s collective agreement with the airline expired in September.
It says it wants to be on par with its fellow pilots in the aviation industry.
The airline revealed better-than-expected results for the third quarter that ended in September.
The airline’s management is more optimistic about its profitability than previously forecasted.
The Montreal company’s results were expected by investors, who feared that the ambient gloom experienced by many consumers would make a dent in the resilience of the recovery of air transport.
“We don’t see a major slowdown right now,” vice-president of network planning Mark Galardo said Monday during a conference call with analysts.
“Reservations are in line with expectations,” he said. “Demand is strong for the fourth quarter (October to the end of the year) in almost all segments and regions where we operate.”
In a statement on the third quarter financial results released Monday, Michael Rousseau, president and chief executive officer of Air Canada, said the company “performed strongly in the third quarter, generating solid operating revenues of more than $6.3 billion, a 19 per cent increase over the same period last year.”
“Our focus on growing our international network, building scale at our hubs and leveraging our solid partnerships is delivering strong results,” Rousseau said.
Air Canada is reporting operating revenues of $6.344 billion, an increase of over $1 billion from the third quarter of 2022, driven by higher passenger revenues.
The airline said “inflationary pressures” saw operating expenses of $4.9 billion, an increase of five per cent from the third quarter of last year.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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