Wages proved the final sticking point in Air Transat pilot talks

MONTREAL — In a white, windowless room, negotiators for Air Transat pilots and their employer on Tuesday hammered out the final details of a deal that had been hung up for days on the question of wages.

The tentative agreement announced that evening averted a costly work stoppage for Transat A.T. Inc., which owns the struggling leisure airline, and a major disruption for thousands more travellers on the cusp of the holiday rush.

Eighteen flights had already been cancelled in a precautionary wind-down ahead of a Wednesday morning strike deadline from the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Air Transat’s 750 aviators.

Virtually all of the “non-monetary” issues such as scheduling and health protections had been sewn up for days, said Transat spokeswoman Andréan Gagné. All that remained on Tuesday was income and compensation.

“The last couple of hours were especially on those increases,” she said. “And we closed the gap.”

After more than a week of round-the-clock discussions, negotiators worked out the final kinks on wages in the afternoon, though details have not been officially disclosed. Federal conciliators were also on hand.

The two sides shook hands sometime after 5 p.m., Gagné said.

The vibe inside the room — “it wasn’t a sexy place, white wall, nothing fancy” — changed immediately.

The Transat team felt “relieved,” she said. “Relieved and happy to go back to normal for our customers.”

Spread out across several conference rooms — some for breakout sessions — the two sides had routinely talked off and on until about 2 a.m. over the past week as bargaining intensified, according to officials from Transat and the Air Line Pilots Association.

The deal prevented a fresh round of flight cancellations, Gagné said.

The previously suspended flights included destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean and Peru as well as London, Paris, Spain and Portugal.

All 18 were either to or from Toronto or Montreal and scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday.

The labour dispute would have marked the third strike in a year and a half in Canada’s airline sector, as workers seek to make gains that match those achieved elsewhere in North America amid the rising cost of living.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.

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