WestJet Airlines' aircraft maintenance engineers start strike

(Reuters) - Aircraft maintenance engineers and other technical operations employees at Canada's WestJet Airlines went on strike at 7:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) on Friday, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) said.

The union representing WestJet's maintenance engineers and other technical operations employees served a strike notice on June 18 after 97% of them voted to reject a tentative pay deal reached in May.

On June 20, the union withdrew the strike notice and returned to the bargaining table. However, after failing to reach a deal, they served a second strike notice, effective June 28, ahead of the Canada Day long weekend on July 1.

WestJet expressed outrage at the strike and said it "will hold AMFA 100% accountable for the unnecessary stress and costs incurred as a result".

WestJet, which is backed by Onex Corp and competes with Air Canada, said severe travel disruption is to be expected if the strike is not called off immediately.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid, William Mallard and Himani Sarkar)