Central Alberta travel agents are left scrambling once again as flight cancellations due to a looming WestJet pilots’ strike, come on the heels of pandemic shortages.
If 1,800 WestJet pilots follow through with plans to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. Friday, “it’s going to be horrendous,” predicted Richard Roth, of CanWest Travel.
With the prospect of Canada’s second-largest airline temporarily shutting down, “no question, people are going to be missing appointments” and other important events, he added.
On Thursday morning, there were zero seats open for flights between Toronto and Calgary until next week. Roth anticipated having to route travellers through many out-of-the-way U.S. locations to get them across the country at the last minute.
Travel agents noted that the airline business had not yet stabilized, in terms of staffing capacity, from having to scale back due to COVID-19. Now the pending pilots’ strike is causing WestJet to roll out cancel hundreds of flights, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people.”
Refunds for the cancellations are being handled by WestJet. The carrier’s partner, Delta Air Lines, is trying to accommodate customer rebookings without changing fee codes.
But Roth said customers who want their flights rebooked are still having to talk to a real person to get this done. As a result, he and other travel agents throughout the region are getting anxious calls from many people who didn’t book their flights through them, but now need their help to get to their destination.
“I’m doing my best to assist people,” Roth added, since call volumes to WestJet are through the roof.
‘It’s crazy,” agreed Sandy Knox of The Travel Agent Next Door, who was also extremely busy helping people rebook flights while trying to keep up on top of the latest developments.
The situation is leaving a lot of people with fixed dates for trips in a real bind, Knox added. Dates for destination weddings, funerals — or even blocks of vacation time people have taken — can’t necessarily be changed.
“The people I’ve spoken to aren’t absolutely freaked out about it, but they are stressed,” she added. “They are hoping for a settlement…”
The union for WestJet pilots continues to be in a contract dispute with WestJet, as well as its subsidiary Swoop, with no signs of a break-through by Thursday morning. Salaries remain the most contentious issue.
One bright side for local travel agents who are having to put in extra hours to rearrange flights is that WestJet is protecting their commissions, “so that’s a huge bonus for us,” a local agent said.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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