| CanJet staff await news of airline’s fateScheduling bulletin suggests Air Transat will no longer operate Canjet’s charter flights, but neither company will confirm.Share on Facebook Reddit this!By: Michael Lewis Business Reporter, Published on Fri Aug 28 2015CanJet Airlines’ flight and cabin crew are awaiting word on their fate after a scheduling bulletin Thursday suggested tour provider Air Transat will no longer operate the charter’s vacation flights starting next month.“We have no plane,” said a source, who asked not to be named. “They are not planning to operate aircraft using our crew.”She said the bulletin likely means the CanJet Boeing 737 aircraft is being “dry leased” to Air Transat, without CanJet personnel, which means the plane is available to be rented to another company.Air Transat would not confirm or comment on low-cost carrier CanJet’s “actions or intentions.” CanJet president Stephen Rowe did not respond to a request for comment.Audrey Tam, president of the CUPE local that represents CanJet flight attendants, said Rowe in an email to the union said the membership will be updated next week.A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association Canada representing the carrier’s 13 remaining pilots said the union is unclear on the airline’s plans, adding that he hopes Rowe “can find a way to reinvent.”In 2009, CanJet began offering charter flights on behalf of Transat Tours Canada from Toronto and other Canadian cities to vacation destinations but the contract was not renewed in April 2014.The subsidiary of Halifax-based IMP Group said it would park five of its six aircraft as a result of the lost business and due to slow holiday package sales.Last year CanJet laid off 67 pilots and 68 permanent and seasonal flight attendants according to a report and eliminated its planned European operations.
The carrier is now operating only one aircraft for Air Transat year round employing 13 flight crew and 35 attendants based in Toronto, CUPE said. CanJet in 2007 had more than 570 employees. |
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| "and due to slow holiday package sales."
Low demand hopefully equals better deals? Removing aircraft may artificially try to create a lower supply to match the lower demand BUT they really can’t afford to just park planes. |
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not always great deals if there are fewer and fewer carriers……. |
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| I wasn’t surprised to hear about "slow holiday sales" but I was surprised to read they would already be parking planes.
Seems like we aren’t going to benefit from less demand based on our low low dollar value. Less offerings will keep prices high, and then as the dollar starts to go up and the economy improves, they will just increase availability and not pass along any of the savings to us little people. |
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CanJet already parked all but one of its planes. While this is sad for the company and its employees, I doubt that it will artificially create much of a lower supply. |
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