Earlier this week, the airline revealed it offered a 38 percent raise in compensation over four years, which the airline argued would have made them the highest paid flight attendants in Canada, with a 25 percent raise in the first year to its flight attendants who were seeking a new contract.
The flight attendants’ union rebuffed the offer and gave Air Canada a 72-hour strike notice that led the airline to start canceling flights as early as Thursday, Aug. 14. As of Saturday, Aug. 16 morning more than 700 flights across Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge have been canceled thus far.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, Air Canada suspended all operations of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge due to a strike by its 10,000 flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The strike took effect at 12:58 am ET.
Air Canada’s Final Warning for Travelers
In the statement posted to its website, Air Canada offered its final word of warning for travelers regarding their flights.
“Air Canada is strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed ticket on an airline other than Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge. Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional cancelled flights and their options,” it said in the statement. “For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet cancelled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel. For more information customers should visit aircanada.com/action.”
How Much Air Canada Could Lose Per Day
As the cancellations continue, former Air Canada executive John Graduk revealed the airline is set to lose up “at least” $50-60 million every day of a potential strike.
“A strike will cost them $50-60 million a day in lost revenue. At least $50-60 million. So this is not trivial, this is a significant amount of revenue lost,” Gradek said. “The margins in the business are not great so after a four or five day strike and the loss of that revenue and the loss of trust and reputation that Air Canada [will suffer] in the marketplace, I’m pretty sure Air Canada will come back to the table pretty quickly.”
