After a turbulent three-day strike that grounded hundreds of flights and left over half a million passengers stranded, Air Canada and its flight attendants have reached a tentative agreement that both sides are hailing as a historic breakthrough for workers in the airline industry. The deal, announced in the early hours of Tuesday, August 19, 2025, brings to a close a dramatic standoff that tested the resilience of Canada’s largest airline and the resolve of the more than 10,000 flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The roots of the dispute stretch back eight months, with negotiations between Air Canada and CUPE repeatedly stalling over issues of pay, unpaid labor, and scheduling. According to reporting from Quartz, the union accused Air Canada of refusing to address critical concerns, particularly the long-standing practice of not compensating flight attendants for certain hours worked—such as time spent boarding passengers and waiting at airports ahead of flights. CUPE described the airline’s initial contract offer as “below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage,” and insisted that it would still leave flight attendants working unpaid for significant portions of their shifts.
The impasse reached a boiling point on Wednesday, August 13, when CUPE delivered a 72-hour strike notice. Air Canada responded in kind with a 72-hour lockout notice, setting the stage for a showdown that would soon disrupt travel plans for hundreds of thousands. By Saturday, August 16, more than 10,000 flight attendants had walked out, grounding planes and causing cascading cancellations across the airline’s network. According to BBC News, Air Canada operates around 700 flights daily, serving both domestic and international travelers—a scale that quickly translated into widespread chaos for travelers as the strike wore on.
As the weekend progressed, frustration mounted on all sides. The Canada Industrial Relations Board intervened, declaring the strike unlawful on Sunday, August 17, and ordering the striking workers back to their posts. Yet, CUPE did not immediately comply, maintaining their picket lines and intensifying the pressure on Air Canada’s management. The union’s resistance drew both criticism and sympathy, as travelers faced canceled vacations and business trips, while flight attendants insisted they were fighting for basic fairness in their workplace.
“Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power,” CUPE declared in a statement, as reported by Quartz. The union called the negotiations a “historic fight” that would set a precedent for the entire airline sector. In a show of unity, CUPE advised its members to “fully co-operate with resumption of operations” once the tentative agreement was reached, signaling an end to the immediate disruption even as the details of the deal awaited ratification by the union’s membership.
The breakthrough came in the early hours of Tuesday, August 19, after more than nine hours of intensive, mediated talks. According to Bloomberg, the session concluded shortly after 4 a.m. Toronto time, with both sides agreeing to terms that have not yet been disclosed in full. However, several key elements of the agreement have come to light. The airline reportedly offered immediate pay increases for flight attendants, ranging between 8% and 12%, pending ratification. Over the next four years, total compensation is set to rise by 38%, according to Quartz. Notably, the deal includes provisions for at least one hour of ground pay before each flight, paid at 50% of the hourly rate and increasing by 5% annually—addressing one of CUPE’s most persistent grievances about unpaid labor.
Air Canada, for its part, emphasized that the revised proposal sought no concessions from flight attendants and invited the union to enter third-party, binding arbitration if any outstanding issues remained. The airline also requested government-directed arbitration, but CUPE rejected the move, accusing the government of “caving to corporate pressure.” Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu responded by encouraging both parties to resume talks and announced that her ministry would launch an inquiry into allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector—a step that could have broader implications beyond this dispute.
The impact of the strike was immediate and severe. Air Canada estimated that about 500,000 customers had their flights canceled as of August 19, forcing the airline to withdraw its third-quarter and full-year financial guidance. The disruption could not have come at a worse time, coinciding with the busy summer travel season and further straining an industry still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As flights began to resume on Tuesday evening, CEO Michael Rousseau cautioned that it could take seven to ten days to restore regular service, with some flights continuing to be canceled until the schedule stabilized. “Flights will gradually restart Tuesday evening, but it could take seven to ten days to resume regular service,” Rousseau said in a statement, as reported by Quartz.
Political leaders weighed in as well, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressing relief over the agreement. “It is my hope that this will ensure flight attendants are compensated fairly at all times, while ending disruption for hundreds of thousands of Canadian families, workers, and visitors to Canada,” Carney wrote on X, formerly Twitter. The government’s involvement, both as a mediator and as an investigator into labor practices, underscored the high stakes and public scrutiny surrounding the dispute.
For the union, the deal represents not just a victory for its members, but a turning point for the airline industry as a whole. “When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back—and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on,” CUPE said in a statement. The union’s framing of the deal as “transformational change” suggests that the effects may ripple beyond Air Canada, potentially influencing labor negotiations at other carriers and in other sectors where unpaid work is a contentious issue.
Despite the agreement, the road ahead is not entirely smooth. The deal must still be ratified by CUPE’s membership, and Air Canada has indicated it will withhold public comment on the terms until that process is complete. Meanwhile, the airline faces the logistical challenge of repositioning aircraft and crews, a task complicated by the sheer scale of its operations and the backlog of disrupted flights. Shares of Air Canada rose 0.8% in early trading on Tuesday, reflecting cautious optimism among investors that the worst of the crisis has passed.
As travelers begin to return to the skies and the airline works to restore normalcy, the legacy of this strike will likely be felt for years to come. For now, both sides seem to agree on one thing: this was a fight worth having, and the outcome marks a new chapter for labor relations in Canadian aviation.
