Air Canada strike: Government ends flight attendants’ walkout, services to resume but cancellations linger

Air Canada will restart flights on Sunday evening after the Canadian government intervened to end a strike by its 10,000 flight attendants that left more than 100,000 travellers stranded during the peak summer season.The airline, Canada’s largest, said it will take several days before operations return to normal and warned that some flights would remain cancelled over the next seven to 10 days until schedules stabilise.Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered attendants back to work less than 12 hours after they walked off the job at 1 a.m. on Saturday, citing the broader economic impact, AP reported. “Now is not the time to take risks with the economy,” Hajdu said, pointing to the unprecedented tariffs the US has imposed on Canada.

The dispute has been referred to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which extended the current collective agreement until a new one is decided by arbitration.The walkout had paralysed operations of the carrier, which runs nearly 700 flights daily. The shutdown was affecting about 130,000 passengers a day. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said Air Canada had cancelled 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, following 199 cancellations on Friday.

Another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended.The union had rejected Air Canada’s earlier request for government-directed arbitration, escalating the conflict. The government previously forced two major railroads into arbitration during a strike last year, a move unions challenged in court, arguing it weakened labour’s bargaining power. In this case, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed Ottawa’s intervention, and the Business Council of Canada had also urged binding arbitration.Hajdu stressed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is “not anti-union,” but added it was clear both sides were at an impasse.Air Canada announced that passengers affected by cancellations would be eligible for full refunds through its website or mobile app. It also promised to arrange alternative travel with other Canadian and foreign airlines “where possible,” but cautioned that immediate rebooking could not be guaranteed as flights on other carriers were already full during the busy summer season.The airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have been negotiating for nearly eight months without success. Pay remains the most contentious issue. Air Canada said its latest proposal offered a 38% increase in overall compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, a package that “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”The union disagreed, arguing that the proposed 8% raise in the first year fell short of addressing inflation and raised concerns about the unpaid work flight attendants perform when aircraft are not in the air.