Alex Coutu has her hands full. She is responsible for ensuring dozens of international high school students make it safely home — to destinations all across the world — this weekend.
The WestJet strike is not making things easier.
“It’s logistically a bit of a crazy nightmare,” Coutu said, standing with dozens of emotional exchange students near the WestJet desks at the departure level of Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.
Tens of thousands of airline passengers across Canada are getting bad news this weekend.
THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/Darryl Dyck
WestJet announced 235 flights had been cancelled as of mid-day Saturday after its mechanics union decided to strike, with the possibility of another 150 cancellations by the end of the day.
WestJet executives told a news conference in Calgary that 235 flights had already been cancelled as of mid-day Saturday after its airport mechanics union, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association’s (AMFA), decided to strike. The cancellations were affecting some 33,000 passengers, WestJet said, with the possibility of another 150 cancelled flights by the end of the day if there was no resolution to the walkout.
In Winnipeg, at least 17 incoming and outgoing WestJet flights were cancelled as of early Saturday afternoon, according to the airport’s website. These included flights en route to Calgary, Thunder Bay, Cancun, Montreal, Edmonton and Saskatoon, and those arriving from Calgary, Thunder Bay, Edmonton, Halifax, Mexico, Montreal and Toronto.
Coutu has three students whose flights are cancelled. One is going to Japan, one travelling to Spain and the other to Denmark. All flights require multiple legs, and the cancelled Canadian WestJet flights prevent them from getting overseas.
She is trying to stay positive.
“I always tell kids … the hardest days make the best stories,” she said. “It’s hard now, it’s sad now, it’s stressful now but one day this will be a fun story that you’ll tell.”
Exchange student Valeria Hernandez was at the airport saying goodbye to friends, accompanied by her homestay mom, Angie Izzard. Hernandez is flying Air Canada when she heads home to Mexico in the coming days, but the Saturday ordeal others were experiencing was making her nervous.
“We’re all panicking,” Izzard said, scolling through dozens of messages on the Winnipeg homestay family group chat.
She offered to help Coutu out, as some families are leaving town for vacation soon and won’t be able to host their international students if they get stranded.
Tyler MacAfee, vice-president of external affairs with the Winnipeg airport, advised travellers to keep a close eye on the status of their flights online. More cancellations could be on the horizon, but there were still some WestJet flights into and out of Winnipeg Saturday that weren’t affected.
“It’s hard now, it’s sad now, it’s stressful now but one day this will be a fun story that you’ll tell.”–Alex Coutu
Bonnie Slaunwhite was one of the lucky ones.
“We’re flying out at 3:10 p.m. and we haven’t heard anything (bad) yet,” she said standing in the baggage drop-off line at WestJet at noon on Saturday.
She is travelling to Halifax, where she’s originally from, with her fiancé and mom.
“We have two weeks booked of Airbnbs, VRBOs, family barbeques, engagement parties,” she said. A cancellation at this stage “would have been bad.”
Outside the airport, five WestJet engineers on strike chatted with a pilot, holding signs reading: “No engineers, no flights. We keep WestJet flying.” One driver dropping off a passenger honked and gave them a thumbs-up.
AMFA announced its members walked off the job Friday evening because of the airline’s “unwillingness to negotiate with the union made the strike inevitable.” The move came after the federal government issued a ministerial order for binding arbitration on Thursday, following two weeks of turbulent discussions with the union on a new deal.
Katrina Clarke / Free Press
Members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) picket outside Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, Saturday.
WestJet Airlines president Diederik Pen called the strike “devastating” for passengers and the airline.
“We are outraged and I want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to get this resolved,” said Pen.
The striking employees outside the Winnipeg airport, who didn’t want to be named, urged their employer to be reasonable. Some said they had been with the airline for 20-plus years and things had never before come to a strike. They were frustrated they had to be there.
“For our skills and our responsibility, we are not paid fairly,” one said.
“We have as much responsibility (for safety) on that aircraft as the pilot,” another said. “Unfortunately, we’re in the background.”
– With files from the Canadian Press
katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca
Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter
Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.
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