Air Canada offers pilots a 30% pay hike, Bloomberg News reports #CanadaFinance

(Reuters) -Air Canada has offered its pilots a 30% pay hike in an effort to avert strike action, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Pilots at Canada’s largest carrier would receive a minimum 20% increase in pay up front, which would be followed by annual hikes over three years, the report said.

The agreement, if reached, will avert a strike that is set to begin as early as Sept. 17 and would lead to travel disruptions across Canada.

Air Canada declined to comment on the specifics of the labor negotiations but said it was open to any solution to reach a reasonable settlement with its pilot union, including arbitration.

More than 5,000 union-represented pilots have been advocating for unprecedented wage increases to close the salary disparity with their higher-earning U.S. peers, who achieved record contracts in 2023 amid pilot shortages and robust travel demand.

Air Canada’s pilots have previously said the current pay rates for aviators at U.S. rival Delta Air Lines are up to 45% higher than the Canadian carrier’s hourly pay rates.

The union and the airline had entered into a three-week cooling off period, which is mandated by Canadian law, and began on Aug. 27.

That came after the end of federal conciliation in contract negotiations with the pilots union.

(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona)