WestJet Encore pilots have given the green light to a deal with their employer, averting a strike at the regional airline.
The Air Line Pilots Association says its members have ratified a five-year contract that offers higher pay, more flexible schedules and 鈥渁 better work-life balance.鈥�
The union says about 79 per cent of the pilots who cast a ballot approved the collective agreement, with the vast majority of the carrier鈥檚 350-plus pilots participating in the vote.
Carin Kenny, who heads the union鈥檚 WestJet Encore contingent, says the deal establishes 鈥渁 level of career progression鈥� toward flying bigger planes at the carrier鈥檚 mainline operation 鈥� crucial to attracting new pilots and retaining those already on board.
The contract goes into effect immediately, with retroactive pay to Jan. 1.
The vote this week cemented a tentative agreement reached on May 30, steering clear of the turbulence wrought by 11th-hour deals of the sort reached last year between WestJet and mainline pilots as well as aviators at its now-shuttered Swoop subsidiary.
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