After 10-year contact, Air Canada pilots union wants better wages

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The last time Air Canada pilots entered into a collective agreement with their employer was 10 years ago, in the summer of 2014. Needless to say, a few things have changed.

“It is a pretty stale and out of date contract,” said Charlene Hudy, head of the Air Canada group at the Air Line Pilots Association, referring to a document that was signed five years before COVID-19 appeared on the scene.

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The union started the process of collective bargaining with the airline in June of 2023. “Now we’ve been at it for over a year trying to get to an agreement with Air Canada,” she said.

Pilots could walk off the job as early as Sept. 17, after 98 per cent voted in favour of giving their union a strike mandate. And while some agreements have been reached between the two sides, “right now we have some key sticking points … regarding our compensation, our retirement benefits, and we have some quality of life concerns.”

Compensation is key. “The first four years being a new-hire pilot at Air Canada, our pay is very low compared to our industry counterparts,” said Hudy. “When we compare ourselves to our North American industry counterparts, the new hires that I’m representing are making one third of what our industry counterparts are. And that’s after you’ve already spent some time in the industry gaining experience as a professional pilot.”

New pilots at Air Canada are required to have at least 2,000 hours of flying under their belts. Hudy said this can come from flying for regional airlines in Canada’s North, overseas airlines, or working as a flight instructor. “It’s quite a broad range.”

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Hudy said she couldn’t give a precise figure for the wages made by a new hire at the airline because of the variables involved, but when asked whether it might be in the range of $50,000 to $60,000 she replied: “That’s not inaccurate.” A copy of the collective agreement available online mentions a monthly salary for pilots in their first year of $4,595 based on up to 75 hours of flight time, roughly equivalent to $55,000 annually.

Salaries increase with seniority and the type of aircraft being flown, with a recent job ad at Air Canada saying a captain of a narrow-body (single aisle) aircraft can make $215,000 to $290,000 a year, while a wide-body captain (planes with multiple aisles) can earn $315,000 to $350,000 plus overtime and expenses. But the ad also notes that it can take up to 15 years to upgrade to those levels. And even in the upper range of pay, Hudy said, “in most cases we’re making half what they’re making” at other North American airlines.”

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The 10-year contract was something of an anomaly, and Hudy expects the next agreement will likely be in the three-to-five-year range.

“Part of the 10-year agreement was … Air Canada wanted to expand and grow and become the profitable airline it is today,” she said. “Air Canada pilots contributed to that success and growth, so we’re asking for that reinvestment in our pilot group now.”

As to quality of life, she noted: “This isn’t a Monday to Friday type job. Don’t get me wrong, we love our jobs, we love flying, and we take that responsibility very seriously. When we do go to work we’re fully presented and invested.”

But she added: “You’re not going to be at home every night. You’re on the road potentially for days on end.” And a layover in a foreign destination “is not the same as being on vacation,” as pilots have to prepare and be ready for the next flight.

“We’re really looking for a bit of a work life balance,” Hudy said. “We want to be able to have that down time or quality time with our families when we’re at home.” And just as salaries don’t match industry averages, neither does time off. “That’s something we found that we sacrificed in bankruptcy, which we’re still trying to really negotiate back.”

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Air Canada filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. In February, the airline announced that net income rose to $184 million in the airline’s fourth quarter from $168 million a year earlier. CEO Michael Rousseau called the full year “very successful,” as net income over 12 months swung to a profit of $2.28 billion from a $1.7-billion loss in 2022.

Hudy was hired by Air Canada in 2018, but said her full-time job with the union has kept her grounded.

“I do miss flying though,” she said wistfully. “It’s the best office view that you can’t beat.”

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