Canada’s WestJet to cancel flights again after second strike notice

(Reuters) – Canada’s WestJet Airlines has started canceling flights again after a union representing its maintenance engineers rejected a new pay offer and served a second strike notice, the carrier said on Wednesday.

WestJet said this action would lead to about 25 flight cancellations between June 27 and 28 and impact more than 3,300 travelers. The airline had said earlier in the day that the work stoppage could occur as early as June 28.

It is unclear how long the strike might last.

WestJet, which is backed by Onex Corp and competes with Air Canada, has faced employee demands for better working conditions and higher wages.

WestJet said it presented the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) with an “industry-leading Canadian agreement” that was better than the previous agreement that was rejected by the union earlier in the day.

The rejected offer provided aircraft maintenance engineers with a 22% pay increase over four years.

AMFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It is especially devastating that the strike notice we received from AMFA forces us to begin canceling flights and parking aircraft for the second time in just over a week,” said Diederik Pen, president of WestJet Airlines and group chief operating officer. .

The Calgary-based airline last week canceled 40 flights affecting 6,500 customers after it received a 72-hour strike notice from the union. The union withdrew the strike notice on June 20 and agreed to return to discussions.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema)