Air Canada grounds hundreds of flights over cabin crew strike

Air Canada’s unionised flight attendants walked off the job early on Saturday morning after pay talks with the country’s largest carrier stalled, in a move that is expected to disrupt travel plans for more than 100,000 passengers.

The union representing more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants confirmed the 72-hour stoppage in a social media post just before 0100 ET (0500 GMT) in the first strike by flight attendants since 1985.

The airline said on Saturday it had suspended all flights for Air Canada and its budget arm Air Canada Rouge, after cabin crew represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) went on strike.

“About 130,000 customers will be impacted each day that the strike continues,” Air Canada said in a statement.

“Air Canada is strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed ticket on an airline other than Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge,” the airline said.

Flights for regional operators Air Canada Jazz and PAL Airlines would continue to operate.

Attendants are currently paid when the plane is moving and the union is seeking to also be compensated for time spent on the ground between flights and helping passengers board.

Montreal-based Air Canada, which is expected to respond quickly by locking out the workers, had said it anticipated cancelling 623 flights by the end of Friday during the busy summer travel season. It expected around 100,000 people would be affected on Friday alone.

Flight attendants will on Saturday picket at major Canadian airports, where passengers were already trying to secure new bookings earlier in the week, as the carrier gradually wound down operations.

Passenger Freddy Ramos, 24, said on Friday at Canada’s largest airport in Toronto that his earlier flight was cancelled due to the labor dispute and that he had been rebooked by Air Canada to a different destination.

“Probably 10 minutes prior to boarding, our gate got changed and then it was canceled and then it was delayed and then it was canceled again,” he said.

Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge normally carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the busiest foreign carrier servicing the US by number of scheduled flights.

While the dispute has generated support from passengers for the flight attendants on social media, Canadian businesses reeling from a trade dispute with the United States urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on both sides, which would end the strike.

Air Canada has asked Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government to order both sides into binding arbitration although CUPE, which represents the attendants, said it opposed the move.

The Canada Labour Code gives Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu the right to ask the country’s Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration in the interests of protecting the economy.

Hajdu has repeatedly urged the two sides, which are not bargaining, to return to the table.

The union has said Air Canada offered to compensate flight attendants for some work that is now unpaid but only at 50% of their hourly rate.

The carrier had offered a 38% increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year, which the union said was insufficient.

In a note to clients on Friday, analysts at financial services firm TD Cowen urged the carrier to “extend an olive branch to end the impasse,” adding that investors are worried that any cost savings on labour are outweighed by lost earnings in the airline’s most important quarter.

“We think it would be best for AC to achieve labor peace,” the note said. “Not budging on negotiations risks being a Pyrrhic victory.”

Reuters