Air Canada begins flight cancellations as 10,000 flight attendants threaten weekend strike
The airline that transports about 130,000 passengers daily announced this week that negotiations on a new collective agreement with its 10,000 flight attendants had reached an 'impasse.'
Chief operating officer Mark Nasr told reporters Thursday that the airline had begun 'a gradual suspension of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations.'
Without a deal, 'all flights will be paused by Saturday early morning,' he said.
In addition to demanding a wage increase, the union has argued flight attendants are not compensated for work on the ground, including during the boarding process.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has dismissed Air Canada's latest offer as 'below inflation (and) below market value.'
CUPE issued a 72-hour strike notice at 12.01am (0401 GMT) Wednesday, meaning the labour action could begin one minute past midnight on Saturday.
Air Canada maintains its offers have been fair. CUPE rejected a request to settle outstanding issues through arbitration.
Air Canada's head of public affairs Arielle Meloul-Wechsler said the union's approach to recent negotiations has been 'superficial,' in a press conference interrupted by more than a dozen flight attendant protesters.
Federal labour minister Patty Hajdu said the dispute was causing widespread 'anxiety' and urged both sides 'to come back to the bargaining table and get this done now.'
Air Canada, the country's largest airline, flies to 65 countries and operates nonstop service to 180 cities. — AFP
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The Star
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- The Star
Air Canada flight attendants walk off job, picket lines set up at airports
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The Sun
15 hours ago
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Malay Mail
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At Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the world's hardest hit yesterday for cancellations, according to FlightAware, Air Canada passengers lined up in front of a desk to ask workers for information about flights. A strike, which was scheduled to start just before 0100 ET on Saturday, would hit Canada's tourism sector during the height of the summer travel season. Recording studio owner Robyn Flynn, 38, told Reuters that her yesterday afternoon flight from St. John's in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to Montreal had been delayed twice. Despite the inconvenience, she said she backed the attendants. 'They deserve a salary increase... and if our flight gets cancelled, I 100 per cent blame Air Canada, not the flight attendants,' said Flynn, travelling with her three-year-old daughter. The Canada Labour Code gives Hajdu the right to ask the country's Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration in the interests of protecting the economy. 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Air Canada flight attendants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) hold a picket at one of four airports to highlight their pay demands in contract negotiations with Canada's largest airline, outside Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario August 11, 2025. — Reuters pic Unpaid work The dispute hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most have traditionally paid them only when planes are in motion. But in their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in both Canada and the United States have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks such as boarding passengers. New labor agreements at American Airlines and Alaska Airlines legally require carriers to start the clock for paying flight attendants when passengers are boarding. American's flight attendants are now also compensated for some hours between flights. United Airlines' cabin crews, who voted down a tentative contract deal last month, also want a similar provision. Air Canada and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge normally carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the non-US carrier with the largest number of flights to the US, despite recent cutbacks in travel there from Canada due to trade tensions. — Reuters
