Air Canada planes remain grounded

Air Canada canceled hundreds of flights and suspended operations Saturday in response to a strike by its flight attendants demanding better pay during the peak tourist season. Some 130,000 passengers a day will suffer the consequences, according to the company.

At Toronto Pearson International Airport, one of the main hubs for Air Canada and its subsidiary Air Canada Rouge, Terminal 1 was unusually deserted Saturday morning, according to an AFP journalist on the scene, as travelers anticipated the shutdown.

"We are now officially on strike," the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents some 10,000 flight attendants, announced in a statement. In response, Air Canada announced in a statement that it was "locking out the 10,000 Air Canada Rouge flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)." A lockout is a temporary closure of a company decided by the employer in response to a labor dispute. It is to last 72 hours, Air Canada said, noting that 700 flights scheduled for Saturday have been "suspended."

Air Canada, which flies directly to 180 cities worldwide, "strongly advises affected customers not to go to the airport," adding that it "deeply regrets the impact of the strike on customers." The strike began around 1:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. in Switzerland) on Friday night, after the 72-hour notice period provided by CUPE expired. Even before the strike officially began, the company had gradually scaled back its operations. As of Friday evening, it announced it had already canceled 623 flights, affecting more than 100,000 passengers, over the past few days.

Beyond a pay raise, its cabin crew is also demanding to be paid for hours worked on the ground, including during boarding, which has not been the case until now. Air Canada detailed a final compromise offer on Thursday that would raise the average annual salary of a senior flight attendant to 87,000 Canadian dollars (about 50,800 Swiss francs) by 2027, but CUPE deemed the proposals insufficient, particularly in light of inflation.

The union had also rejected requests from the company and the Canadian government to attempt to resolve the disputes through independent arbitration. The dispute, which took place in the middle of summer, is putting pressure on Air Canada, the country's main carrier based in Montreal.

Rafael Gomez, director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and a labor relations expert, told AFP he did not expect a long strike. "It's peak season. The company doesn't want to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue," he said.

The Canadian economy, while showing signs of resilience, is beginning to feel the effects of the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, with tariffs affecting sectors crucial to the country. In a statement issued before the strike began, the Canadian Business Council, which represents executives from more than 100 major companies, warned of the risk of seeing the difficulties exacerbated by a strike at Air Canada.