Air Canada is delaying its plans to renew companies on Sunday after its 10,000 placing flight attendants defied the Canadian authorities’s return-to-work order to stay on the picket traces.

The strike, which started on Saturday morning, stranded greater than 100,000 vacationers all over the world through the peak summer time journey season. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline workers again to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the Canadian authorities intervened and Air Canada mentioned it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.

Nonetheless, the Canadian Union of Public Staff, which represents the flight attendants, mentioned the demonstrations will hold going across the nation, regardless of the airline’s assertion.

“We invite Air Canada again to the desk to barter a good deal, somewhat than counting on the federal authorities to do their soiled work for them when bargaining will get a little bit bit powerful,” the union mentioned. “We stay on strike. We demand a good, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours labored.”

The airline mentioned in a press release Sunday afternoon that it plans to renew flights on Monday night.

Hanging Air Canada employees stroll the picket line at Pearson Worldwide Airport in Toronto on August 16, 2025.

PETER POWER/AFP by way of Getty Photos


Fewer than 12 hours after employees walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the ten,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now just isn’t the time to take dangers with the economic system and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 folks a day. Air Canada operates round 700 flights per day.

In keeping with numbers from aviation analytics supplier Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a complete of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, following 199 on Friday. And one other 96 flights scheduled for Sunday have been already suspended.

A departures board at Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025.

Bloomberg


The bitter contract combat escalated Friday because the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which permits a third-party mediator to determine the phrases of a brand new contract.

Flight attendants walked off the job round 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Across the identical time, Air Canada mentioned it might start locking flight attendants out of airports.

Final yr, the federal government compelled the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration with their labor union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail employees is suing, arguing the federal government is eradicating a union’s leverage in negotiations.

The Enterprise Council of Canada had urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal authorities just isn’t anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.

Passengers whose flights are impacted might be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s web site or cell app, in keeping with Air Canada.

Air Canada airplanes stand on the tarmac at Pearson Worldwide Airport in Toronto on August 16, 2025. 

PETER POWER/AFP by way of Getty Photos


The airline mentioned it might additionally provide different journey choices by means of different Canadian and international airways when attainable. Nonetheless, it warned that it couldn’t assure instant rebooking as a result of flights on different airways are already full “as a result of summer time journey peak.”

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Staff have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to achieve a tentative deal.

Either side have mentioned they continue to be far aside on the problem of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t within the air.

The airline’s newest provide included a 38% enhance in whole compensation, together with advantages and pensions, over 4 years, that it mentioned “would have made our flight attendants the perfect compensated in Canada.”

However the union pushed again, saying the proposed 8% increase within the first yr did not go far sufficient due to inflation.

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