Air Canada to lay off 630 flight attendants in 3 cities
Lindsey Wiebe , Winnipeg Free PressPublished: Wednesday, July 09, 2008
WINNIPEG - Air Canada has confirmed it will lay off more than 630 flight attendants this fall in Vancouver, Halifax, and Winnipeg.
The bulk of the layoffs will be in Vancouver, where 300 flight attendants will lose their jobs.
"There will be 300 Vancouver-based flight attendants subject to layoff as a direct result of the decrease in international long-haul flying this fall," Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said Wednesday night.
She would not specify a date for those job losses.
The layoffs are part of a company-wide round of 2,000 job cuts, initially announced in mid-June but without any of the specifics on where the loses would come.
In the beginning of November, 145 flight attendants in Winnipeg will get the boot, while the beleaguered airline will also close its Halifax flight attendant base, with a total of 187 positions lost there.
An estimated 78 maintenance workers in Winnipeg who service Air Canada and other flight companies will also be out of work later this month, and at least 80 will lose their jobs in Montreal.
Jazz, the regional feeder carrier for Air Canada, is also slashing 270 jobs.
"This was a very difficult decision to make," Mah said, referring to the Winnipeg layoffs. "The decision to close the Winnipeg base was not made lightly."
Mah said after a review of flights in and out of Winnipeg and the changing nature of inflight services, "it was just no longer viable to base inflight crews at this base."
Meanwhile, union representative Lorne Hammerberg said the 78 maintenance workers with ACTS will be laid off by July 25.
ACTS, formerly Air Canada's in-house maintenance group, is now a private company that serves a number of airlines, including Air Canada as a major client.
ACTS spokeswoman Daniela Pizzuto would not confirm the number of maintenance workers laid off, but stressed that the layoffs were temporary.
"It's because of a reduction in workload," she said. "Air Canada has decided to defer their maintenance costs."
Pizzuto said it's too early to say when the positions might be reinstated.
"We have a bad suspicion it may be longer than anticipated," said Hammerberg, a representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
WINNIPEG - Air Canada has confirmed it will lay off more than 630 flight attendants this fall in Vancouver, Halifax, and Winnipeg.
The bulk of the layoffs will be in Vancouver, where 300 flight attendants will lose their jobs.
"There will be 300 Vancouver-based flight attendants subject to layoff as a direct result of the decrease in international long-haul flying this fall," Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said Wednesday night.
She would not specify a date for those job losses.
The layoffs are part of a company-wide round of 2,000 job cuts, initially announced in mid-June but without any of the specifics on where the loses would come.
In the beginning of November, 145 flight attendants in Winnipeg will get the boot, while the beleaguered airline will also close its Halifax flight attendant base, with a total of 187 positions lost there.
An estimated 78 maintenance workers in Winnipeg who service Air Canada and other flight companies will also be out of work later this month, and at least 80 will lose their jobs in Montreal.
Jazz, the regional feeder carrier for Air Canada, is also slashing 270 jobs.
"This was a very difficult decision to make," Mah said, referring to the Winnipeg layoffs. "The decision to close the Winnipeg base was not made lightly."
Mah said after a review of flights in and out of Winnipeg and the changing nature of inflight services, "it was just no longer viable to base inflight crews at this base."
Meanwhile, union representative Lorne Hammerberg said the 78 maintenance workers with ACTS will be laid off by July 25.
ACTS, formerly Air Canada's in-house maintenance group, is now a private company that serves a number of airlines, including Air Canada as a major client.
ACTS spokeswoman Daniela Pizzuto would not confirm the number of maintenance workers laid off, but stressed that the layoffs were temporary.
"It's because of a reduction in workload," she said. "Air Canada has decided to defer their maintenance costs."
Pizzuto said it's too early to say when the positions might be reinstated.
"We have a bad suspicion it may be longer than anticipated," said Hammerberg, a representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Labels: Air Canada, Canada, layoffs
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