Air Canada to gradually resume flights after reaching settlement with union
After multiple days of canceled flights, delaying and derailing thousands of passengers' travel plans, the Air Canada flight attendant strike is officially over.
Canada's largest airline announced it will "gradually restart its operations" on Tuesday "after reaching a mediated agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees through a process overseen by a mutually agreed-to mediator."
Some 10,000 flight attendants refused to return to work despite a government order on Sunday, amid a dispute with Air Canada over wages and unpaid labor. The Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, says the carrier's wages are below inflation, market value, and the federal minimum wage and has asked that flight attendants be paid for groundwork, which includes labor performed prior to takeoff and after landing.
The airline said Tuesday it participated in the mediation discussions "on the basis that the union commit to have the airline’s 10,000 flight attendants immediately return to work" to allow the carrier to resume Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations that had been grounded since Saturday.
"The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologize for the impact on them of this labour disruption. Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible," Michael Rousseau, Air Canada's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The "complex undertaking" to full restoration, as Rousseau referred to it, could take up to a week or longer.
The first flights are scheduled for Tuesday evening, and Air Canada has advised customers that full, regular service could be seven to 10 days out as the fleet of aircraft and its crews get in position.
"During this process, some flights will be cancelled over the next seven to ten days until the schedule is stabilized," Tuesday's announcement stated.
Air Canada was forced to cancel hundreds of flights as a result of the work stoppage and and said nearly 500,000 customers were impacted in Canada and the U.S.
United, the American-based partner for Air Canada, told ABC News in a statement that very few United customers were affected.
