Air Canada strike grounds flights, causing travel chaos for 130,000 passengers

Air Canada cabin crew walked off the job early Saturday, grounding hundreds of flights and stranding thousands of passengers forced to seek alternatives or stay put.

The strike, which started just after 1 a.m. EDT, forced Canada’s largest airline to suspend most of its 700 daily flights, affecting about 130,000 travelers, the airline said.

It's unclear how many U.S. passengers are affected. Air Canada operates about 430 flights to the United States daily, out of more than 1,000 total flights, according to Travel and Tour World.

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Unionized Air Canada employees formed picket lines outside major Canadian airports as they fought for better pay and conditions.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing more than 10,000 flight attendants, said its members are currently paid only when the aircraft is moving from pushback to arrival and that they receive no pay for time spent boarding passengers, helping them deplane or waiting on the ground between flights.

The labor union is demanding full compensation for this unpaid ground time.

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, said in a press conference in Toronto that, as of Saturday morning, there were no bargaining sessions scheduled between the two sides, which have held on-and-off negotiations for months.

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"We are here because Air Canada forces us to work for free for hours and hours every day, and we are here because we are not going to accept it anymore," he said.

Air Canada said its package raises overall compensation by 38% over four years, while the union stresses that the company is only offering 50% pay for ground duties like boarding and deplaning, not full hourly wages.

The company said its offer would make Air Canada flight attendants the best compensated in Canada. Already, cabin crew earn up to $17 more per hour than their counterparts at the company’s largest domestic competitor, it said.

Air Canada said hourly rates would rise as high as 94 Canadian dollars ($69 U.S.) in the first year, reflecting a 12% to 16% increase that includes an 8% boost to base wages and another 4% to 8% through a new ground pay formula. By 2027, it said senior flight attendants would earn an average of 87,000 Canadian dollars ($63,000 U.S.) a year, with about 20% making 90,000 Canadian dollars ($65,700 U.S.) or more.Air Canada said on Saturday that it "remains engaged and committed to negotiate a renewal to its collective agreement with CUPE."

"Air Canada deeply regrets the effect the strike is having on customers," the company said in a statement.

The airline 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.

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"Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional canceled flights and their options," the company said. "For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet canceled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel."

Air Canada has asked Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government to act, but the union says it wants a negotiated solution, as binding arbitration would take pressure off the airline.

Air Canada flies to more than 180 airports in Canada, the United States and internationally on six continents, the company said.

Reuters contributed to this report.