Air Canada on charm offensive trying to ease travellers worries as tentative deal reached with pilots

Air Canada is trying to get travellers back in the air now that a threatened work stoppage is over before it began.

The carrier and its unionized pilots reached a tentative contract deal over the weekend.

And now, the airline is offering 25 per cent discounts on some new bookings, bonus Aeroplan points, and vouchers for its lounges.

But one hospitality expert says while it’s all part of Air Canada’s plan to entice travellers back into the air, the damage may have already been done.

Frederic Dimanche with the Toronto Metropolitan University says companies in the hospitality industry — hotels, venues that host conventions, restaurants, and others — will still deal with a few bumps and bruises.

“The hotels are not able to accommodate the business travellers that they should normally have during that time, so obviously, there will be a loss of revenue for many suppliers in the industry,” he explained.

Canada’s largest air carrier announced shortly after midnight Sunday that it had reached a tentative, four-year collective agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association.

The deal, reached after more than a year of contract negotiations, ended the possibility that the 5,200 Air Canada pilots represented by the union could be locked out or walk off the job. Any such move would have forced the airline to suspend nearly all operations, a prospect that raised concerns among business groups, passengers and even the prime minister.

Dimanche says the impact would have been worse in smaller communities that get smaller conventions but those events bring a lot of money and people to town.

“Destinations that Air Canada is flying to, especially destinations where Air Canada is the main player,” Dimanche explained.

“Thinking about hotels, I’m thinking about conferences that don’t get their business travellers, I’m thinking about hotels that are not able to accommodate the business travellers that they should normally have,” he added.

He says that especially would have been the situation if the work stoppage had gone ahead.

–With files from The Canadian Press.