Strikes – Air Canada: (1)(Update) Air Canada to cover certain transportation expenses for some customers; (2)Air Canada flight attendants to vote on proposed pay increase next week; ( 3)(Updated) Air Canada strike ends after tentative deal reached with flight attendants union; ( 4)Carney ‘disappointed’ by Air Canada impasse, urges both sides to reach a deal; (5) (Updated) Air Canada cancels plan to resume flights Sunday as union defies back-to-work order;
(1)(Update) Air Canada to cover certain transportation expenses for some customers
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Sammy Hudes, Aug. 20, 2025.
Air Canada set to announce new expenses policy for passengers as restart continues
Air Canada says it is adopting a policy to cover “certain transportation expenses” incurred by customers while getting to their destinations during the recent work stoppage.
The airline said Wednesday it will reimburse customers for those costs if they had a cancelled flight originally scheduled to depart from Aug. 15 to Aug. 23, Air Canada was unable to rebook them and they then made alternative arrangements themselves.
A new form available on Air Canada’s website allows customers to request a refund if they only completed part of their journey with Air Canada or had to rely on an alternative method of transportation due to the strike.
The policy appears to signal that Air Canada is acknowledging “its legal obligation to reimburse passengers for alternate transportation costs that they incurred” in situations where the airline failed to rebook customers on other flights, said Air Passenger Rights advocacy group president Gabor Lukacs.
He said that under the national Airline Passenger Protection Regulations, Air Canada had an obligation when cancelling flights to either rebook passengers on its own or partner airlines within 48 hours of the original departure time, or to rebook them on the next available flight of any airline, including competitors.
But Lukacs said Air Canada did not meet that requirement in many cases. He said he heard from customers who received emails from the airline indicating there were no alternative flights available through its competitors.
“That was untrue in many cases. We have heard from passengers that they were able to buy an alternate transportation for a much higher price,” he said.
“Air Canada, under the law, was required to buy those tickets for the passengers at its own dime.”
Air Canada has said it continues to offer customers with cancelled flights related to the work stoppage a full refund or credit for future travel if they cannot be rebooked on a competitor’s flight.
For those who prefer to be rebooked, it cautions that “capacity is limited due to peak summer travel.”
Matt Turner of Stoke-on-Trent, England said he was told by Air Canada that an alternative flight to Toronto couldn’t be found after his family’s Aug. 20 booking was cancelled on one day’s notice.
The family had planned to be in Toronto for an upcoming Oasis concert, having splurged on VIP tickets to celebrate their 11-year-old son’s graduation from elementary school.
“When it first happened, we looked into getting flights to Canada a different way,” said Turner. However, he said the family decided they couldn’t afford to pay the inflated last-minute prices on other carriers.
Turner said they accepted the refund “to avoid the risk of losing even more money.”
He said the family is also out nearly $3,000 in concert tickets alone, plus hundreds more for cancelled hotels, car rentals and other activities.
“We are at a loss and completely numb,” he said.
Air Canada’s website says only those who originally booked directly with Air Canada are eligible to request a reimbursement for alternative transportation through its new submission page.
Customers are entitled to reimbursement if they paid “a reasonable fare on another airline” within five days of their original departure date, it states. Such fares must be in the same or lower cabin to their original flights.
Customers can also submit claims for alternative transportation options such as bus, ferry or car expenses.
The form excludes passengers who booked their original flights via Aeroplan, a travel agency or another airline.
“Now, after days of media scrutiny, Air Canada is willing to make amends with the public and is offering to pay for that alternate transportation,” said Lukacs.
“What is unclear to me is why Air Canada is insisting on only tickets that were bought from Air Canada. The obligations for tickets bought through (airlines) or travel agents are the same. Air Canada has to reimburse alternate methods of transportation, regardless of how you purchased your ticket.”
The latest development comes as Air Canada continues ramping up flights amid an operational restart expected to take more than a week.
Air Canada resumed flights Tuesday afternoon after a complete halt to Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge routes that began early Saturday morning.
As of Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, 90 per cent of domestic flights were expected to operate over the next 24 hours, along with 95 per cent of U.S. flights and 54 per cent of other international routes, according to a dashboard on Air Canada’s website.
It said the average contact centre wait time was around an hour and 18 minutes.
Air Canada has cautioned that a return to full, regular service would take up to 10 days as aircraft and crew are out of position. The delays are compounded by mandatory maintenance checks that must take place because aircraft were on the ground for more than three days.
“Regrettably, during this period some flights will be cancelled until the schedule is stabilized, and we’ll notify customers well in advance and provide options,” said Air Canada executive vice-president and chief operations officer Mark Nasr in a Tuesday evening press release.
The airline and the union representing more than 10,000 of its flight attendants struck a new tentative agreement on Tuesday morning with the help of a federal mediator.
— With files from Fatima Raza
(2) Air Canada flight attendants to vote on proposed pay increase next week
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Sammy Hudes, Aug. 19, 2025
More than 10,000 flight attendants for Air Canada will begin voting next week on a new tentative agreement that raises wages and establishes a pay structure for time worked when aircraft are on the ground.
The airline and its union agreed to the deal Tuesday morning with the help of a federal mediator, ending a strike that upended thousands of customers’ travel plans.
Terms of the tentative deal shared by the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees on its website include a 12 per cent salary increase this year for most junior flight attendants, while more senior members are set for an eight per cent pay bump.
All members are set for a three per cent raise in 2026, followed by 2.5 per cent in 2027 and 2.75 per cent in 2028.
The proposed deal must be ratified by the flight attendants, with a vote scheduled to take place from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.
However, while members are set to vote on the full package, a large chunk of the terms within it — such as those setting out rules for pensions and retirement bridging, health benefits, prone rest and vacation — are already considered final, as agreed to by both Air Canada and the union.
If the deal is not ratified by union membership, CUPE said all terms excluding those surrounding wages would still form part of the new collective agreement for Air Canada’s flight attendants.
The wages portion of the agreement would then proceed to arbitration, where a third-party arbitrator would make a final decision.
The tentative agreement, which would run until March 2029, addresses the contentious issue of unpaid work while airplanes are not in the air.
Starting this year, flight attendants would receive half their hourly wage rate for 60 minutes of ground time on narrow-body aircraft and 70 minutes on wide-body planes. That would rise to 60 per cent of the hourly wage rate next April, 65 per cent in 2027 and 70 per cent in 2028.
The terms surrounding ground pay are also considered final, regardless of the results from the upcoming ratification vote.
York University labour professor Steven Tufts said the end to unpaid ground work for Air Canada’s flight attendants could set a precedent for the industry.
“The majority of carriers still and historically did no ground time. They put everything into the rate for time in the air,” he said.
“Now that the flagship carrier has it, I think the other small airlines will be more likely to follow suit.”
Tufts noted the ground pay terms of the Air Canada deal are similar, but not identical, to provisions at Delta Air Lines in the U.S. Delta, whose flight attendants aren’t unionized, in 2022 started paying for ground time at half the hourly rate, capped around 50 to 60 minutes.
“I think what happened is that the parties actually looked at that agreement and … did not necessarily borrow the language, but they borrowed the model,” he said.
Last year, American Airlines flight attendants also secured pay for boarding time through a union contract. Air Transat flight attendants tried but were unable to get it established during contract talks early last year, Tufts added.
It’s also likely to be a key issue for WestJet flight attendants whose contract concludes at the end of 2025.
“This has been a global campaign. It’s just not Air Canada flight attendants. And this is something that’s been overdue,” Tufts said.
On Monday, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said Ottawa is launching a probe into “allegations” of unpaid work in the airline sector. She called concerns about the pay system “deeply disturbing,” and said if the probe determines those allegations are well-founded, she is prepared to introduce legislation that would close such loopholes.
Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike last Saturday. Hajdu intervened in the strike less than 12 hours later, invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to force the airline and the union into binding arbitration. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered flight attendants to return to work Sunday.
That order was defied by union officials, leading the board to state Monday that the strike was unlawful even as the union said it would press ahead.
The company and union resumed negotiations Monday evening before reaching a tentative agreement overnight.
Two days after restarting operations following the strike’s conclusion, Air Canada said Thursday most of its domestic and international routes would be back up and running.
An online dashboard tracking Air Canada’s service resumption said Thursday morning that 98 per cent of domestic flights were expected to operate over the next 24 hours, along with 99 per cent of U.S. flights.
The airline’s ramp-up of international flights has also nearly caught up, with 94 per cent of planned flights expected to operate.
It is expected to take up to 10 days for service to return to normal levels across Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge.
On Wednesday, the company said it was adopting a policy to reimburse certain customers if they booked alternative transportation in lieu of cancelled flights between Aug. 15 and Aug. 23.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.
(3)(Updated) Air Canada strike ends after tentative deal reached with flight attendants union
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Sammy Hudes, Aug. 19, 2025.
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Flight attendants union says tentative deal reached to end Air Canada strike
Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants have reached a tentative deal to end a strike that began on Saturday morning.
The airline said it will gradually begin operations Tuesday.
The two sides met through the night with a federal mediator before reaching a tentative agreement that will be brought to more than 10,000 members of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
In a statement, the union said the tentative deal would end the practice of unpaid work by flight attendants when airplanes aren’t in the air. It added the agreement also achieves “transformational change for our industry after a historic fight to affirm our charter rights.”
“Your right to vote on your wages was preserved,” the union said in a post on its website announcing the end of the strike.
The union also said it must advise members to “fully co-operate with resumption of operations.”
Air Canada said the first flights are scheduled for Tuesday evening, but cautioned that the return to full, regular service may require seven to 10 days as aircraft and crew are out of position. Some flights will continue to be cancelled until the schedule is stabilized.
“Only customers with confirmed bookings whose flights are shown as operating should go to the airport,” the airline said.
Air Canada said it will offer options to those with cancelled flights, including a full refund or receiving a credit for future travel. It will also offer to rebook customers on other airlines where possible.
The federal government intervened in the strike on Saturday morning, invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to force the Montreal-based airline and the union into binding arbitration. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered flight attendants to return to work Sunday.
That order was defied by union officials, leading the board to state Monday that the strike was unlawful even as the union said it would press ahead. The board ordered the union to stand down and publicly tell its members to do the same by noon ET Monday, which the union didn’t do.
CUPE national president Mark Hancock had said union leaders were all-in on pushing for a negotiated deal.
“If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it,” he told reporters Monday.
“We’re looking for a solution here, our members want a solution here. But that solution has to be found at a bargaining table.”
CUPE said meetings with the airline resumed Monday evening after the company reached out.
The two sides struck a deal shortly before 4:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The Canadian Labour Congress said Air Canada flight attendants “delivered a decisive blow to employers who think they can sidestep fair bargaining by hiding behind Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.”
“The outcome makes one thing clear: Section 107 is no longer a reliable weapon for employers,” it said in a press release.
“By refusing to bow to government interference, CUPE flight attendants exposed Section 107 for what it is: an unconstitutional violation of workers’ Charter-protected right to free and fair collective bargaining. Any employer thinking of leaning on Section 107 in the future should think twice — it’s a crutch that just snapped.”
Air Canada had estimated Monday that some 500,000 customers’ flights had been cancelled since the strike began.
(4)Carney ‘disappointed’ by Air Canada impasse, urges both sides to reach a deal
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Craig Lord, August 18, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday he’s disappointed Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants weren’t able to reach a deal after eight months of negotiations.
Carney said he is urging both sides to quickly resolve the situation causing major chaos for travellers.
“We are in a situation where literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are being disrupted by this action,” he said.
Carney made the comments to reporters ahead of a meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford in Ottawa.
Flight attendants went on strike early Saturday morning after talks broke down and the two sides failed to reach a deal on Friday.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu referred the matter to the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday in a bid to end the dispute through binding arbitration, saying the two parties remained too far apart to reach a deal on their own.
“It was the judgment of both the union and the company that they were at an impasse. That’s not my judgment, it’s their judgment,” Carney said Monday.
He also said that Ottawa recognizes the “critical role that flight attendants play in keeping Canadians and their families safe as they travel,” adding that it’s “important that they’re compensated equitably at all times.”
The union representing the flight attendants ignored Ottawa’s back-to-work order over the weekend and launched a legal challenge against the move.
On Monday morning the labour board declared the strike unlawful and ordered the union’s leadership to tell its striking workers to go back to work.
Following his meeting with Carney, Ford told reporters that everyone deserves a fair wage and that the final deal has to be in the best interest of the workers, the company and Canadians.
Asked about the union’s decision to initially defy the back-to-work order, Ford said it was up to the federal government to “make sure they sit down at the table.”
“That always happens when you have labour issues, but they’ll work it out. It’s happened before, and they’ll get things moving,” he said.
— with files from Kyle Duggan
(5) (Updated) Air Canada cancels plan to resume flights Sunday as union defies back-to-work order
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Sarah Ritchie, August 17, 2025
Air Canada cancelled hundreds of additional flights on Sunday after the union representing its flight attendants announced the workers would remain on strike in defiance of a back-to-work order.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees said it filed a challenge in Federal Court on Sunday to an order by the Canada Industrial Relations Board that said its members must return to work by 2 p.m. ET.
“Our members are not going back to work,” CUPE national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto’s Pearson Airport. “We are saying no.”
Hancock ripped up a copy of the back-to-work order outside the airport’s departures terminal, where union members continued picketing on Sunday morning as a way to signal to Air Canada that “we’re ready for a big fight.”
The federal government intervened in the labour dispute on Saturday, less than 12 hours after flight attendants initiated their strike.
Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said she was invoking Section 107 of the Labour Code to ask the Canada Industrial Relations Board to send the two sides to binding arbitration and order the airline and its flight attendants back to work in the meantime.
Hajdu told reporters the “potential for immediate negative impact on Canadians and our economy is simply too great.”
The Liberal government has used this mechanism to intervene in a number of labour disputes, including a lockout and strike at the country’s largest railyards in August last year.
On Sunday afternoon, Hadju’s office said she was still monitoring the flight attendants’ situation.
The airline said in a separate Sunday statement that CUPE has “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction” from the industrial relations board by calling for a “day of action” on Sunday.
CUPE held demonstrations outside of the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary airports.
CUPE has accused Hajdu of caving to Air Canada’s demands.
Air Canada said Sunday it would push back its plan to resume flights until Monday evening, though the union said it will remain on strike until it has a “fair, negotiated collective agreement.”
The airline did not immediately respond to questions about why it believed operations could resume by Monday.
Air Canada reported roughly 940 cancelled Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights during the work stoppage as of Sunday.
The cancellations left thousands of passengers stranded or struggling to find ways to reach their destinations.
Audrey Allen is one of them.
She said her 6 p.m. flight from Toronto to London, England, was listed as “on time” when she left for the airport Sunday afternoon, but by the time she set foot inside the terminal it had been cancelled.
Allen was planning to help care for a friend for three weeks, and was left scrambling to find a new flight in time.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to her, because she can’t afford to stay in this nursing home,” she said, holding back tears. “And I can’t do anything about it at all.”
The CIRB order on Saturday stated that the terms of the collective agreement between the union and the airline, which expired on March 31, were to be extended until a new agreement was reached.
Hancock said the union received notice from the board late Saturday, informing them of the impending return to work. He said the union felt the “whole process has been unfair.”
“Air Canada has really refused to bargain with us…because they knew this government would come in on their white horse and try and save the day,” he said.
The union has said its main sticking points revolve around wages that have been outpaced by inflation during its previous 10-year contract, along with unpaid labour when planes aren’t in the air.
Natasha Stea, the president of the local 4091 for flight attendants based in Montreal, said the workers supported defying the back-to-work order.
“I want to be very clear, Air Canada is choosing to do this to our passengers, to our company, because we are the face of the company, and they’re trying to blame us for all this and getting together with their friends in the government to kind of circumvent all our rights,” she said at a demonstration outside the Toronto airport.
She said workers are “done being abused and exploited.”
“Where you have a multi-billion dollar company that’s refusing to pay living wages to their employees, I just don’t know.”
CUPE originally announced its members were heading to the picket lines after being unable to reach an eleventh-hour deal with the airline, while Air Canada locked out its agents about 30 minutes later due to the strike action.
Air Canada had previously asked Hajdu to order the parties to enter a binding arbitration process.
CUPE said it is inviting Air Canada back to the table to negotiate a fair deal.
Flights on Air Canada Express, operated by Jazz or PAL, were not affected by the work stoppage.
Air Canada said it will offer people whose flights were cancelled options including a full refund, travel credit or rebooking on other carriers, though it noted that “capacity is currently limited due to the peak summer travel season.”
— With files from Natasha Baldin in Toronto and Morgan Lowrie in Montreal
She said workers are “done being abused and exploited.”
“Where you have a multi-billion dollar company that’s refusing to pay living wages to their employees, I just don’t know.”
CUPE originally announced its members were heading to the picket lines after being unable to reach an eleventh-hour deal with the airline, while Air Canada locked out its agents about 30 minutes later due to the strike action.
The union has said its main sticking points revolve around wages that have been outpaced by inflation during its previous 10-year contract, along with unpaid labour when planes aren’t in the air.
Air Canada had previously asked Hajdu to order the parties to enter a binding arbitration process — a power granted to the minister through Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.