#airline-industry

#airline-industry

WestJet has cancelled close to 100 flights as negotiations with its pilots' union go down the the wire.Some 1,800 pilots at the carrier and its Swoop subsidiary are poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m.MT after the Air Line Pilots Association issued a strike notice Monday.On Thursday morning, Calgary-based WestJet said in a statement it had begun to cancel flights along its network "to minimize the potential for being stranded."

The Liberal government announced $75.9 million in additional funding over three years to help tackle the growing backlog of passenger complaints that continue to pile up as the airline industry builds back from the pandemic.Canadian Transport Authority (CTA) officials told a parliamentary committee in November that the backlog of complaints related to delayed, cancelled flights or lost luggage had ballooned to more than 30,000 up from 18,000 the previous summer.

The big challenges of 2022 - COVID and inflation - posed no obstacle to travelers, but finding enough pilots slowed down the travel recovery.Now, with all four big airlines negotiating pilot contracts and several in talks with flight attendants and other groups, labor could again be a pain point for travelers and carriers alike.