The Quebec Superior Court has authorised class action lawsuit filed by the former employees of Aveos, a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) provider which went bankrupt in 2012, against Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau), The Toronto Star has reported.

If found guilty of violating the law and acting in bad faith by leading to the bankruptcy of Aveos, its one-time subsidiary, Air Canada could be liable to pay more than CAD100 million dollars (USD78 million) in compensation and punitive damages.

The class action lawsuit has been filed by several thousand people, including Aveos staff and its family members.

Aveos was Air Canada's MRO subsidiary with bases at Montréal Trudeau, Winnipeg International, and Vancouver International. The Canadian flag carrier largely divested from the unit in 2007 and then gradually reduced the amount of MRO tasks subcontracted to Aveos until 2012, when it decided to shut down the subsidiary.

However, the court has found that by doing so, Air Canada violated the law regulating its privatisation dating back to 1988. The act, however, obligated the carrier to maintain MRO units at all three locations where Aveos was based. The obligation was only eliminated by a law introduced in 2016, four years after Aveos shut down.