Air Canada flyers describe chaos after union says it will defy federal back-to-work order
Air Canada passengers in limbo as flight attendants’ strike enters 3rd day
Another day of uncertainty awaited Air Canada travellers on Monday after striking flight attendants defied a federal back-to-work order and delayed the airline’s plans to restart operations. ‘We haven’t slept, we’ve been calling, we’re tired,’ said one frustrated passenger trying to fly to Portugal for her honeymoon.
The Latest:
- Ottawa moved to intervene in the labour dispute on Saturday, less than 12 hours after flight attendants walked off the job.
- Air Canada said early Sunday it planned to resume flights by evening, before the flight attendants’ union responded, saying it would defy a federal back-to-work order.
- Airline now says flights will resume Monday, but its booking site says all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights are cancelled until further notice.
- Canada’s Industrial Relations Board declares strike unlawful on Monday.
Thousands of Air Canada flyers are facing another day of travel disruption on Monday, after striking Air Canada flight attendants defied a federal back-to-work order and abruptly halted the airline’s plans to resume operations.
It comes after travellers in Canada and abroad described chaotic attempts to secure flights on Sunday while the airline’s fleet of hundreds of planes remained grounded.
Lila Rousseaux, who was scheduled to fly home with her family from Zurich to Toronto on Sunday, told CBC News she spent all of Saturday glued to her phone for news about whether her flight would be cancelled.
At 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, she was informed it was.
“I spent one-and-a-half hours on the phone with the agent … lots of turbulence,” Rousseaux said.
“There was a lot of inflexibility in terms of what can be done,” she said, adding that her suggestions to take a train to Amsterdam to catch a plane, or to fly directly to the U.S. before driving across the border, were rebuffed by the agent.
‘Completely abandoned’: Passenger stranded by Air Canada strike
Bob McDowell is stranded in Amsterdam and said Air Canada ‘completely abandoned’ its passengers after the airline’s flight attendants went on strike.
Rousseaux said she finally booked an “awful” overnight flight to Atlanta, lamenting that she is no longer being seated with her children. “The distress in my family is very acute,” she said.
Ottawa moved to intervene in the labour dispute on Saturday, less than 12 hours after the strike and lockout took effect, with federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu saying she was invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to ask the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to send the two sides to binding arbitration and to order the airline and its flight attendants back to work in the meantime.
The Montreal-based airline subsequently announced early Sunday that it planned to resume flights in the evening, but just hours later, the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants said in a statement that members would remain on strike — scuttling those plans and prompting Air Canada to cancel some 240 flights.
Dozens of youth robotics competitors stranded in Seoul amid Air Canada strike
About 40 youth from across Canada competing at the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in South Korea have been unable to return home after Air Canada cancelled their return flights amid the flight attendants’ strike. Team leaders spoke to CBC News Network about the ‘terrifying’ experience of trying to bring so many young people back home safely and how the kids are holding up.
More than 30 students from across the country were in Seoul, South Korea, this past week to compete in the 2025 FIRA Roboworld Cup when their flights were cancelled, leaving the group representing Canada stranded thousands of kilometres away.
Samia Karimi, director of the Canadian National Robotic Society, said the team won 15 awards at the competition but spirits plummeted quickly over the weekend after realizing they no longer had a flight home.
“Right now, the happiness of the awards has [turned] into sadness [over] the delays,” Karimi told CBC News Network on Monday.
“Our kids are too tired because they competed seven days — day and night.”
City councillor Amanda Collucci, who joined the team to receive the flag from South Korea to represent the 2026 FIRA Roboworld Cup in Markham, Ont., said they have yet to hear word from Air Canada about rebooking flights after having to extend their stay in Seoul.
“When we’re talking about travelling with a group of 50 people, it’s not easy to just rearrange travel [plans] for every single [person],” Colluci said.
Air Canada says it plans to restart flights Monday evening after striking flight attendants defied the federal government’s back-to-work order Sunday morning. For Lila Rousseaux, a longtime Air Canada customer, the weekend work stoppage has resulted in inflexibility from the airline as she and her family try to reroute their way home.
At Vancouver International Airport, passengers stood in long lines to get the latest updates on their delayed and cancelled flights, as workers outside demonstrated with signs reading, “Unpaid work won’t fly.”
Chi Ehis told The Canadian Press she is having to pay an extra $2,000 to meet her family in Florida for a vacation after her flight was cancelled Sunday morning.
Instead of flying straight from Vancouver, she is now taking a bus to Seattle before catching another, pricier flight.
“I can’t scream. I have to just figure out what to do,” Ehis said, adding her plane ticket cost $1,500.
CBC