Thank you very much for having me.
My name is Chris Rauenbusch and I've been a flight attendant at WestJet since 2002. I am the president of CUPE Local 4070 representing the over 4,100 flight attendants at WestJet, WestJet Encore and Swoop.
Canadian airlines are in crisis. It's a crisis caused by COVID but made worse by the inaction of our government.
To put the crisis in perspective, let me tell you quickly that I have just avoided layoff for February by two years of service. I've been employed by WestJet for 19 years, and there are currently no flight attendants with fewer than 17 years of service who are actively flying. Roughly four out of five flight attendants at WestJet are grounded right now.
According to the International Air Transport Association, IATA, in its report titled “The Value of Air Transport in Canada”, which was published in 2019, just prior to the pandemic, the aviation sector directly supported 241,000 jobs in Canada. Our sector supported another 146,000 jobs through the necessary supply chains and other support businesses. Our sector supported yet a further 55,000 jobs through spending of wages earned by our sector's workers. A total of 633,000 jobs are associated with the air transport sector, and that includes 190,000 jobs created due to foreign tourists.
The aviation sector, including domestic-based airlines, generated $37 billion U.S. of GDP annually prior to the pandemic. Since that report from IATA in 2019, Canada's aviation sector has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs as a direct result of COVID-19. Some of these workers are on the CEWS wage subsidy, but many are not. Irrespective of the wage subsidy, many fear that they may never return to their jobs as airlines have shed capacity since the pandemic began, including both of Canada's largest carriers—WestJet and Air Canada—which, yet again, starting in February of this year will be laying off many more of our members. Much of this capacity will, sadly, likely never return.
Within the WestJet group of companies, over 4,100 flight attendants were employed a year ago, prior to the pandemic. As of February 1, a total of only 777 flight attendants will remain active. This number represents an 81% cut to our actively employed flight attendants. This is unprecedented.
We have heard the government discuss the importance of regional routes and air service as one of their top priorities for any aid that they might provide to our sector. This is an understandable position but the reality is that regional air service is most productive when regional routes are connected to a larger network of domestic, transborder and international flights on a main carrier's global network. Regional routes are not efficiently served by strictly point-to-point service just because the government demands it.
Regional routes are best served by multiple frequencies by more than one carrier, which benefit consumers in these regions. Good regional air service is a by-product of healthy global networks built by airlines over time.
Good regional air service cannot thrive simply because Ottawa decrees it should be so, but because regional routes feed the global networks of these airlines, thereby creating profit. That's the incentive that is needed to properly see regional markets well served with more and more service being added unless, of course, Ottawa wants to nationalize passenger air service once again.
If I leave you with nothing else today, please do hear this: We can't assume that airlines like WestJet or Air Canada will simply bounce back after the pandemic ends. The damage being done to the sector is too intense for us to survive, particularly if the pandemic continues. A country as large as Canada needs profitable airlines, and I'm deeply concerned that we won't have them if this government doesn't act fast.
Canada remains the only G7 country without government sectoral support for airlines. In the U.S., billions of dollars in government aid has been provided to airlines to help keep them afloat.
The WestJet network is operating at a level seen in 2001, based on flights per day and available seat miles, a key indicator of an airline's size and market offering.
As Canadians we cannot afford to let the things that are currently transpiring in our industry happen. This government cannot afford to recklessly be complicit in abandoning our key sector, which contributes to our national economy, particularly after hearing testimony from my colleagues and me today.
I implore the committee to take our testimony today with the weight and seriousness that it deserves. Our sector urgently needs federal sectoral support. Sectoral support coupled with a nationwide pre-board testing program is the only way to avoid the national disaster that would be the full or near-full collapse of the Canada's airlines.