Air Canada reduces capacity by 25%, cuts 1,700 jobs

Union says cuts could have been lessened with plan to support industry

OTTAWA — Air Canada is cutting 1,700 jobs and scaling down its operations as the cumulative effects of lockdown restrictions, slumping travel demand and new COVID-19 testing rules take their toll on the airline industry.

The 25 per cent reduction in service for the first quarter of 2021 will also affect 200 employees at Air Canada’s Express carriers, the company said Wednesday morning.

“We regret the impact these difficult decisions will have on our employees who have worked very hard during the pandemic looking after our customers, as well as on the affected communities,” said Lucie Guillemette, Air Canada’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, in a statement.

Guillemette said increased travel restrictions by federal and provincial governments have had an immediate impact on the company’s bookings.

The move comes five days after rival Westjet Airlines announced that up to 1,000 employees will be furloughed, temporarily laid off, put on unpaid leave or have their hours cut, and that it will chop about 30 per cent of its capacity for February and March and pull 160 domestic departures from its schedule.

Westjet CEO Ed Sims laid the blame squarely on “incoherent” federal government policy with regard to the new COVID-19 testing requirements for passengers returning to Canada.

Unifor, the union which represents customer sales and service agents and customer relations representatives at Air Canada, said the cuts could have been lessened if Ottawa had developed a plan to support the aviation industry.

Unifor president Jerry Dias said support for workers needs to be an immediate priority for Transport Minister Omar Alghabra who was named to the job this week in a cabinet shuffle that saw Marc Garneau move to foreign affairs.