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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
First Air is laying off 13 pilots and flight engineers from crews operating the Northern airline's Yellowknife-based fleet of 737 jets and Hercules aircraft, Yellowknifer has learned.

First Air announced last week that it was relocating its Yellowknife jet base to Edmonton. It's now confirming that the consolidation of its operations will come with layoffs - five from flight crews operating jet aircraft and eight from its fleet of two Hercules airplanes.

"That's an efficiency decision based on scheduling," said Jennifer Alldred, manager of marketing communications for First Air.

"On the Herc side of the business it's more a result of taking a look at the overall of how planes operate and what crews and support crews are needed to manage the operation ... We're basically over-crewed on our flight operations. So the crew is now going to more closely match the business demand."

Devin Lyall, Yellowknife Herc pilot and chair of the bargaining unit representing First Air pilots and flight engineers with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), stated in a news released Wednesday that First Air management issued the layoff notices after "failed conciliation talks between the company and the ALPA, which have been at the bargaining table for two years."

He stated during that time First Air has had three different chief executive officers and three different flight operations vice-presidents.

"The planes have always been marketed to go anywhere at any time and get the job done. One would think this would make it significantly harder to do that," Lyall told Yellowknifer prior to issuing the news release. He noted that each Herc requires one captain, one co-pilot, and one flight engineer to operate.

"They really haven't told us very much and we're pretty annoyed because they're playing with our lives obviously."

Lyall also stated that the company is laying off pilots and flight engineers for economic reasons.

"No. No," said Alldred. "The pilots are just being consolidated based on where the planes are based and how the schedule operates. We've looked at it and said, 'Hey, this can be done more efficiently if they're based in Edmonton.' On the Herc side it's looking at the trends and how we've been flying and what the schedule looked like and making adjustments to more closely align with the business."

Alldred notes that First Air service to the public and Northern businesses will continue as usual.

For now, Lyall said the union will try to find jobs for the 13 laid-off crew members with other airlines in Canada.

"We're going to support our members as well as we can ... The company is saying their doing this for economics and there's nothing much we can do about it."

Other than the military, First Air is the only airline in Canada that flies Hercules aircraft, according to the Department of Transportation.

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