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The meetings and the topic of pensions are recorded in the federal Register of Lobbyists.

Flaherty is considering a request filed by Air Canada for a 10-year extension to the cap on special payments it must make to reduce the deficit in its defined-benefit pension funds, which reached $4.2-billion at the start of 2012.

We are concerned about the impact on the state of competition caused by Air Canada repeatedly asking the federal government for special assistance

“We won’t comment on the specifics of individual meetings like these,” WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer told Reuters. “But at a general level, we are concerned about the impact on the state of competition caused by Air Canada repeatedly asking the federal government for special assistance, especially at a time when they are expanding their fleet, buying new aircraft and have billions of dollars on the balance sheet.”

In 2009, Air Canada won agreement from the government for a moratorium on making special pension deficit payments through 2010. After that, Ottawa agreed to a cap on such payments that would rise from $150-million in 2011 to $225-million in 2013.

Air Canada Chief Executive Calin Rovinescu wrote Flaherty on April 26 to ask for a cap of $150-million a year in special payments from 2014 through 2023.

The airline has won the reluctant support of its unions for the plan, as well as the backing of its retirees, which Flaherty had said was a prerequisite for him to consider an extension. Air Canada was hoping for a decision by Flaherty this year.

A decline in interest rates used to calculate solvency gaps in the plans has badly hurt Air Canada, as with other employers with defined-benefit pension plans.