Air Canada’s flight attendants have reached a deal with the airline, ending their first strike in four decades that had disrupted travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 10,400 cabin crew, confirmed on Tuesday that mediation with both Air Canada and its low-cost arm Air Canada Rouge had concluded.
The carrier said flights would gradually resume, but a full return to normal operations could take more than a week.
The strike began on Saturday after talks collapsed over pay and working conditions. The airline had offered a 38% rise in total compensation over four years, including a 25% increase in the first year, but the union rejected the deal as insufficient. A key sticking point was payment for tasks such as boarding passengers, which are currently unpaid.
Despite the Canada Industrial Relations Board ruling the strike unlawful, CUPE members defied the back-to-work order, triggering a rare three-way standoff between the airline, the union and the federal government.
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu had pressed both sides to accept government mediation and pledged to investigate allegations of unpaid work across the airline industry.
Union leaders have long argued that contracts must reflect the full scope of work performed by cabin crew, not just the time when aircraft are in motion. They point to recent gains made by flight attendants at U.S. carriers such as American Airlines as evidence of what can be achieved.
Air Canada said it “welcomed the resolution” and would focus on restoring its schedule, while CUPE hailed the deal as a step forward in addressing long-standing concerns over fair pay.
