Air Canada Begins 72-Hour Strike Countdown
Photo Credit: Air Canada flight attendants during August 11's "Day of Action." Canadian Union of Public Employees
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Strike action at Air Canada will have a ripple effect across global partners and leave travel planners scrambling during the summer peak.
Air Canada is to start cancelling flights on Thursday after a collapse in talks with its main flight attendant union. Unless there is a late breakthrough, a strike is due to formally begin at 1 a.m. ET on August 16.
Ahead of then, the airline says it will proactively cancel flights from August 14 as part of an "orderly shutdown" of operations. A "complete cessation" of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge will take place from August 16. The company said it issued a lockout notice to the union to "mitigate the strike’s customer impact."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 10,000 flight attendants at the carrier, says it received an unprecedented 99.7% strike mandate from its membership. It follows a “Day of Action” on August 11, which saw staff protest outside airports across the country.
The sharp escalation comes after eight months of negotiat
