Air Transat warns of full flight suspension as pilot strike deadline nears
Posted December 9, 2025 12:03 pm.
Last Updated December 9, 2025 1:34 pm.
Air Transat passengers are facing growing uncertainty as the airline warns it may suspend all flights ahead of a possible pilots’ strike set to begin early Wednesday.
Cancellations have been increasing as negotiations continue, and the carrier, which operates more than 500 flights each week, has begun adding flights to bring travellers home early.
CityNews spoke with John Gradek, a faculty lecturer in operations and integrated aviation management at McGill University, to break down the latest as the strike deadline approaches.
How close are we to seeing Air Transat flights grounded if no deal is reached?
We’ve got 19 hours. At 3 a.m., the pilot union has advised the management team at Transat that they are walking off the job. Air Transat has subsequently decided to ground its airplanes and that grounding is already starting.
What does Transat adding extra flights to bring people home early tell you about the situation?
Well, I think they’re pretty serious about trying to prepare for a strike. I think that as much as they would not want to see a strike, this would be the first strike in 39 years at Transat, this is not a scenario that they have a lot of practice in. So they are in fact doing everything they can to bring passengers home. They saw what happened with Air Canada in August and they’re trying to mitigate a repeat.
They’ve sent empty airplanes down to the Caribbean in particular, to Mexico to pick up passengers whose flights were going to be canceled as a result of the strike starting Wednesday. So people who were scheduled to come back on Wednesday and Thursday are now on their way home.
Short-term, what’s the impact we could see on Transat as a result of a strike during peak holiday travel and also long-term what will we see?
Transat is in a tough financial situation. They have some debt that they have to deal with, plus they’re not making money. They’ve lost $25-million last year. So they’re on very, very shaky grounds and a strike will cost them revenue somewhere between $7 and $9 million a day and to rescue passengers another $5 or $6 million to buy tickets. So this is a financial hit that they weren’t expecting. This is the peak travel season. Fares are high, planes are full, and this will be a significant impact to the financials of Transat.
