It looks like Air Canada will be gradually resuming flights as of today. Hopefully this goes more smoothly than Sunday’s failed attempted at resuming flights.
Air Canada reaches settlement with flight attendants
Last week, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents Air Canada’s roughly 10,000 flight attendants, issued a 72-hour strike warning. Air Canada management responded by issuing a flight attendant lockout notice, meaning that all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights were canceled as of Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Given the impact this has on the traveling public, the government tried to get involved to force flight attendants to return to work, and to undergo binding arbitration. As you’d expect, that angered flight attendants, and the union told members to defy the return to work order, and remain on strike.
There’s now an update — Air Canada has announced that it will gradually restart operations as of today, Tuesday, August 19, 2025. The company claims that this follows a mediated agreement through a process overseen by a mutually agreed-to mediator.
Mediation discussions began on the basis that the union commits to having flight attendants immediately return to work. The company isn’t yet commenting on the agreement, and is waiting for the ratification process to be complete. During any ratification or under the binding arbitration process, a strike or lockout is not possible.
Flights are scheduled to resume as of this evening, though customers are advised that it will take 7-10 days for operations to return to normal, as aircraft and crew are out of position. During this process, some flights will be canceled, until the schedule is stabilized.
Air Canada is advising only customers with confirmed bookings for flights that are showing as operating to go to the airport. Meanwhile those on canceled flights have the option of obtaining a full refund or receiving a credit for a future flight. The company will also continue to book customers on other airlines.
Here’s how Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau describes this:
“The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologize for the impact on them of this labour disruption. Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible. Restarting a major carrier like Air Canada is a complex undertaking. Full restoration may require a week or more, so we ask for our customers’ patience and understanding over the coming days. I assure them that everyone at Air Canada is doing everything possible to enable them to travel soon.”
This is great news, hopefully it all works out
Right now details are limited in terms of what the two parties have agreed to. We know that the union was opposed to entering binding arbitration, arguing that it takes away the membership’s ability to vote on a new contract.
This is one of the messier labor agreement situations we’ve seen at an airline in quite some time. In total, the airline fully shut down for nearly four days, and that says nothing of the up to 10 days that it will take for operations to return to normal.
Given that the union was so opposed to binding arbitration, I’m curious if union leaders just didn’t see a way forward that would improve their odds, or if they got some kind of a commitment for further improvements. Hopefully this new contract can be ratified soon, and things can go back to how they were before.
I have to imagine that this process will cause some bad blood between management and labor that wasn’t there before, and that this can’t be good for morale going forward.
Bottom line
Air Canada will be gradually resuming operations as of the evening of Tuesday, August 19, 2025. This comes as management and the union representing flight attendants have reportedly reached a mediated agreement, though the details of that haven’t yet been revealed.
Air Canada has been shut down for nearly four days now, after flight attendants went on strike over a contract dispute, and management responded with a lockout notice. While the government tried to block the strike within a day, the union told flight attendants to defy those orders.
Now it seems there’s finally a resolution, so let’s hope this contract gets ratified, and that the long term impacts aren’t too bad.
What do you make of this update about Air Canada resuming operations?
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