Air Canada says some flights will resume from Sunday evening

Air Canada says its flights will resume on Sunday evening with a “gradual ramp up over coming days” after the federal government ordered flight attendants back to work.

Thousands of flight attendants began strike action first thing Saturday. Jobs minister Patty Hajdu subsequently instructed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to intervene, get flights back in the air and settle the labour dispute through binding arbitration.

On Sunday morning, Air Canada said the board had told the airline and its flight attendants to “resume their duties by 2pm ET” with the existing collective agreement extended until a new one is drawn up by an arbitrator and comes into effect.

The flight attendants’ union has said workers are too poorly paid – and not paid at all for many hours of work while aircraft are on the ground. Air Canada has said it was offering “industry leading” ground pay and a 38-percent increase in total compensation over four years.

The Toronto-Yellowknife Air Canada Rouge route is the only Air Canada service to and from the Northwest Territories that is directly affected by the labour dispute.

Flights between Yellowknife and Vancouver or Edmonton are operated by Air Canada Express, whose flight attendants are not part of the same bargaining unit.

As of 6:30am MT on Sunday, flight AC 1945 – the Sunday evening Toronto-Yellowknife flight – was listed by Air Canada as going ahead, but that was subject to change. The early Sunday overnight flight from Yellowknife to Toronto had been cancelled.

The early Monday overnight flight from Yellowknife to Toronto is also currently expected by Air Canada to go ahead as planned.

More broadly, Air Canada said “several days” would be needed for all flights to return to normal.

“Because the airline had implemented its shut-down and suspended operations at 1:30am ET on August 16, aircraft and crew are out of position vis-à-vis the schedule,” the airline stated.

“Some flights will be cancelled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized. Air Canada deeply regrets the inconvenience for its customers.”

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