Saskatchewan airports said they aren’t seeking immediate action following the announcement of a potential WestJet strike and are instead saying the airline industry is improving.
Last week, the union representing WestJet pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate, meaning 1,600 WestJet pilots could strike as early as May 16.
When asked about the potential strike, Saskatoon Airport CEO Stephen Maybury said they have ‘no line of sight’ as to how it would affect operations. He only commented that the airport’s priority would remain on customer experience.
WestJet chief operating officer Diederik Pen said in a statement that strike authorization is a “common step” by unions during labour negotiations and “does not mean a strike will occur.”
“It’s something we are concerned about, but we are certainly hopeful that gets worked out sooner rather than later,” said Regina Airport Authority revenue director Justin Reeves.
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Neither airport added that they had any preparations in place if the strike were to happen.
WestJet just announced in February that it would be offering flights from Saskatoon to Minneapolis in June after support from the provincial government was ensured.
They also promised to increase connectivity between Saskatoon and Calgary with higher capacity after Air Canada left the market.
If a strike happened, it would come before a busy May long weekend and summer season.
“As we are looking ahead to the summer schedule, we just got the numbers,” Reeves said. “We are going to be at 93-per cent pre-pandemic capacity this summer and that is absolutely massive.”
Regina is expecting to have over 130 flights a week this summer, including seven flights to Calgary per day.
Reeves said things are looking great going into the season with lower fares and higher capacity on flights.
“It seems like we have clear skies ahead and we are really excited about that,” he said despite the looming potential strike.
Saskatoon noted improvements in passenger demand, but still don’t expect to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
“There was a surge in demand so that was difficult to adjust to, there were labour shortages,” said Maybury. “There are pilot shortages and a number of variables that are out there within our sector that have made it difficult to go back to normal in terms of operations.”
— with files from Global News’ Brody Langager
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