Air Canada, FAs Reach Tentative Agreement, Ending Strike

TORONTO — Air Canada (AC) and its CUPE-unionized flight attendants have reached a tentative agreement Tuesday morning, thus ending the unprecedented strike action.

The union claimed it has finished mediation with the airline and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge. At the same time, the carrier stated it would gradually restart operations and that a complete restoration might take a week or longer; some flights will be canceled throughout the next seven to ten days until the schedule is stabilized.

According to Reuters, the airline withdrew its third-quarter and full-year earnings guidance due to the strike, the first cabin staff strike in 40 years, which lasted for almost four days.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees said via Facebook, "The Strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you." With that, the union declared the end of what it portrays as unpaid labor, but while the specifics of the talks were not made public right away, we are confirming an update with the following information:

• 4 year retroactive contract (April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2029
• Pay raise of 16.25% (which is still not more than Air Transat)
• 50% hourly ground pay (60 minutes for narrowbodies, 75 for widebodies), increasing to 70% in the 4th year.
• Gains on vacation days
• Sick days may be cashed out for retirement

Note that for ratification, the only thing that will be voted on by flight attendants will be the base pay raise. Everything else is set in stone. However, according to persons familiar with the negotiations, the general consensus right now is that the raise is not enough.

Flight Cancellations

According to Cirium data, as of Tuesday morning, AC has cancelled a total of 533 flights, including 280 domestic and 253 international services. The disruption spans several days, with the heaviest cancellations occurring between August 15 and 19. 

On the domestic side, cancellations escalated from 15–18 daily earlier in the week to 91 on August 15, before surging to near-total shutdowns with 345 cancellations on August 16, 352 on August 17, and 353 on August 18. Although operations partially recovered on August 20, with 55 cancellations, the cumulative domestic toll has reached 1,509 flights out of 2,818 scheduled.

International operations followed a similar pattern: only a handful of cancellations occurred on August 13 and 14, but the number jumped to 108 on August 15 and peaked with 373, 372, and 370 cancellations between August 16 and 18. 

Air Canada reported 539 total cancellations today, August 19, including 282 domestic and 257 international flights, with no additional cancellations since the last update.

Looking ahead, tomorrow’s schedule reflects a slight increase in disruptions, with eight more domestic and four more international cancellations added since the previous report. Cancellations remain heavily concentrated between August 15 and 19, when nearly all scheduled flights were grounded.

To date, domestic operations have seen 1,542 cancellations out of 2,818 scheduled flights, while international operations recorded 1,617 cancellations out of 2,895 flights. The airline will provide its next update tomorrow morning.

Operations will likely take more than a week to get up to 100%.