VANCOUVER (Bernama-Xinhua): Canada's second-largest airline, the WestJet Group, began cancelling a significant number of flights on Saturday due to a strike by its aircraft maintenance engineers.
The initial 150 flight cancellations forced by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) strike will impact approximately 20,000 guests, said WestJet on its website.
AMFA, representing about 670 WestJet maintenance engineers, began strike action at 4.30 pm local time (2330 GMT) on Friday.
Additional cancellations are expected by Saturday morning if the strike is not called off or immediate intervention does not occur, the airline said in a statement.
WestJet said it is seeking immediate intervention from the minister of labour and the Canada Industrial Relations Board, noting the airline had more than 250,000 guests scheduled to fly for the long weekend.
Starting Saturday, WestJet will begin parking aircraft in stations across Canada to operate a significantly reduced schedule by the end of the day, it said. - Bernama-Xinhua
