Air Canada Flight Attendants End Strike After Tentative Deal

Air Canada’s flight attendants have ended their first strike in four decades after reaching a tentative agreement with the airline, bringing relief to hundreds of thousands of stranded passengers.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents some 10,400 flight attendants at Air Canada and its low-cost affiliate Rouge, announced the breakthrough on Tuesday after four tense days on the picket line. “The strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you,” the union said in a statement.

Air Canada confirmed that operations would resume gradually, warning that it may take a week or more for schedules to fully normalise. The airline, which carries around 130,000 passengers daily and operates the largest number of U.S.-bound flights of any foreign carrier, said mediation with CUPE had concluded.

The strike was triggered by stalled contract negotiations, with attendants highlighting long-standing grievances over unpaid work. Currently, they are compensated only while aircraft are in motion, leaving ground duties such as boarding uncompensated. Workers pressed for agreements closer to those recently secured by flight attendants in the United States.

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Air Canada had earlier offered a 38 per cent boost in total compensation over four years — including a 25pc raise in the first year — but the union rejected the proposal, insisting that the issue of unpaid labour be addressed.

The walkout, which persisted despite being declared unlawful by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, led to a rare three-way standoff involving the airline, the union and the federal government. Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged both sides to accept mediation and pledged to examine claims of unpaid work across the airline sector.

While details of the tentative agreement have not yet been disclosed, union leaders said it would be put forward for member ratification in the coming days. In the meantime, weary travellers are expected to see gradual relief as flights resume, though residual delays are likely as crews and schedules stabilise.