MONTREAL, Sept. 20, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada said today talks with CUPE, which represents the airline's 6,800 flight attendants, are continuing prior to the union's strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. EDT September 21, 2011, assisted by federally-appointed mediators.

However, in the event a strike cannot be averted before CUPE's deadline, the airline is proceeding to prepare for the implementation of a partial schedule, if required, for Wednesday September 21 in order to ensure orderly schedule modifications as necessary.  Effective immediately, temporary modifications are being made to some regularly scheduled Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz on September 21 in order to redeploy the limited number of aircraft available to serve the greatest number of passengers on Air Canada's highest demand domestic and transborder routes.

Air Canada Express customers booked for travel Wednesday September 21 who are affected by schedule changes are being notified directly by Air Canada or their travel agent.  Customers who booked directly through Air Canada will receive an email or SMS notification if a change has been made to their itinerary inviting them to use Air Canada's online rebooking tool for Delayed and Cancelled Flights at aircanada.com in order to make alternate arrangements.  Customers with cancelled flights also have the option of requesting a full refund through the online rebooking tool.

"We regret the inconvenience the ongoing labour uncertainty is creating for our customers and we thank them for their patience," said Duncan Dee, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "We are fully committed to reaching a negotiated agreement with CUPE prior to their strike deadline and our preference is to do so without government intervention through back-to-work legislation.  However, at this stage we have no choice but to start modifying our schedule to better implement a contingency schedule for September 21 if required.   We apologize to those customers affected and will communicate developments on an ongoing basis."

Air Canada mainline flights are not currently affected by the contingency schedule preparations. The airline will provide updates as plans are finalized and developments warrant.

In addition to offering the option of refunds to customers whose flights have been cancelled,  Air Canada has introduced a flexible rebooking policy to enable customers booked for travel over the next six days on a rolling window basis (September 20-25, 21-26, etc.) to change their flight dates free of charge until December 9, 2011, subject to seat availability.

Call centre wait times are longer than usual due to increased call volumes.  Customers are urged to consult aircanada.com that will continue to be updated with the latest available information and to use the airline's self service tools for flight information and rebooking.  Customers may also contact their travel agent for assistance.

For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, please consult aircanada.com and follow @AirCanada on Twitter and Facebook.