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A 'customer care centre' and a place for pilots to picket are in Kelowna International Airport's WestJet-strike contingency plan.
The local airport doesn't know whether or not jet pilots with WestJet and Swoop will go on strike early Friday morning as threatened in a 72-hour notice issued Monday night.
"But, we do want to be prepared if the job action does happen," said Kelowna airport senior operations manager Phillip Elchitz.
"That's why we're putting together our contingency plan."
Before Elchitz elaborated on the contingency plan, he pointed out that any strike action would be by WestJet and Swoop pilots of jets like the Boeing 737 and Dreamliner.
Pilots at WestJet Encore, the regional subsidiary that flies the smaller Q-400 propeller planes on short-haul flights, are not in a position to strike.
Of the 48 flights that WestJet and Swoop operate daily in and out of Kelowna airport, 15 are with WestJet mainline and Swoop on jets, including four flights to Toronto (two on WestJet and two on Swoop) and some of the busier flights to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
That means 33 flights in and out of Kelowna daily are with WestJet Encore on the smaller Q-400s on the short-haul routes to and from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria.
Technically, those 33 flights would continue to operate in the case of a strike.
However, there's already talk that if it does come to job action, WestJet will deploy some of the Q-400s to its hubs of Vancouver and Calgary.
That would mean further disruption at smaller airports like Kelowna that rely on the Q-400.
"There's a fair amount of anxiety," said Elchitz.
"Passengers don't know what to expect."
That's why Kelowna airport will set up a 'customer care centre' in its terminal building if a strike happens on Friday.
"We learned from the (weather and staff shortage) disruptions over Christmas that the airport needs to play a role in helping passengers," said Elchitz.
"We can't rebook passengers on another airline (that has to be done by the passenger or WestJet), but we can help them find local hotel accommodation, see if Ebus or a shuttle to their destination is a possibility and get them some interim food and water. We expect that families travelling with small children and elderly people will particularly need this kind of help."
WestJet is offering refunds or flights on other airlines to those who take action until May 21.
But the reality is, with talk of a WestJet strike looming, passengers have already cancelled and tried to get on Air Canada, Pacific Coastal, Air North, Flair and Lynx.
Other airlines are likely already fully booked by now with regular and May long weekend passengers and WestJet passengers that made the switch in time.
WestJet's already seen a marked decrease in bookings because of the potential strike.
It's also started to curb operations in some cases and park jets at Canadian airports (including Kelowna) so planes don't get stranded in the US, Caribbean or Europe if the strike comes to fruition.
Kelowna airport's contingency plan will provide striking pilots a location in the vicinity of the main terminal, that doesn't disrupt passengers, for a peaceful picket line.
WestJet mainline, Swoop and WestJet Encore represent about half of the passenger flights in and out of Kelowna airport with service to Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, with seasonal flights being added to Regina on May 21 and Saskatoon and Winnipeg on June 1.
The other half of flights are operated mostly by Air Canada (to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal), Pacific Coastal (Victoria), Flair (Vancouver and Kitchener and Winnipeg, starting June 10), Central Mountain Air (Prince George and Vancouver), Lynx (Calgary and Toronto) and Air North (Vancouver and Whitehorse).
A total of about 1,800 WestJet mainline and Swoop pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, are in a position to strike.
Reportedly, the union and the airline are still far apart on issues involving pay, scheduling and job security.
There's speculation that WestJet's last offer was $350,000 a year in total compensation for jet captains by the end of the next collective agreement.
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