Early this morning, as we were informed by the CAW that their members were on strike, we put our contingency plan into action.

I am proud to report that our first 24 hours demonstrated the high level of commitment and professionalism we expect from the 22,000 employees who worked together to minimize the impact to our customers.

While there were inevitable challenges throughout the day, our system start up was one of the best in weeks, and there were widespread media reports of a relatively smooth operation under the circumstances. Comments from our customers were generally positive with most reporting virtually unaffected airport experiences. Working together we carried nearly 99,000 customers safely to their destinations with a flight completion rate of over 99.8%!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the 22,000 employees supporting this operation for your contributions to this incredible effort. No matter what your role, your professionalism under the circumstances cannot be underestimated and your commitment to our customers defines our company.

You may have already heard that the government gave notice it will introduce back-to-work legislation. We would prefer that a negotiated contract to the benefit of both parties could be achieved through the normal bargaining process and we’re ready to go back to the table at any time.

In the meantime, I know I can count on everyone to continue to put our customers first.

Duncan Dee