Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) has announced that a partnership agreement with Cargojet Airways (W8, Hamilton, ON) will expire at the end of the year and will not be extended.
Under the terms of the deal announced in April 2016, CargoJet agreed to operate a B767-300F for and on behalf of Air Canada Cargo on flights from Toronto Pearson to Frankfurt International in Europe and México City International (via Dallas/Fort Worth), Bogotá, and Lima International (via Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) in South America. This will now end with the advent of the new year.
According to The Loadstar, the decision to axe the mutually beneficial deal came after the Air Canada Pilots’ Association (ACPA) refused to greenlight the deal.
Air Canada Cargo flights are mandated to be operated by ACPA members. As such, because the CargoJet contract was an outside lease, the deal was given a twenty-month trial period following which, the ACPA would advise on its rollover.
"ACPA advised Air Canada in late October that it did not intend to pursue any further extension, on the basis that there was insufficient value to our members and as such, insufficient member support that would be required to ratify any longer-term arrangement under our collective agreement,” an ACPA statement said.
To mitigate the impact of the deal's end, Air Canada has announced it will be increasing its passenger jet frequencies to Mexico and Lima in 2018 thus bolstering its bellyhold freight capacity.
