Air Canada began suspending flights Thursday (local time) after the union representing the airline’s 10,000 flight attendants issued a 72-hour strike notice.
The industrial action is set to cause major travel disruptions, with at least one Australian flight already impacted and the possibility of more to follow.
Air Canada told Karryon Friday afternoon that flight AC33 from Vancouver to Sydney, which was due to depart at 10.40pm Thursday evening (local time) and arrive early Saturday in Sydney, had been cancelled. At this stage, no other Sydney flights are affected. It added that Brisbane flights are “operating normally at this stage”.
With the strike set to commence on Saturday at 1am (ET), Canada’s national airline has begun “a phased wind-down of most of our operations, to be completed over the next two days”, it said in a statement.
At a press conference on Thursday (local time), Air Canada Chief Operations Officer Mark Nasr said, “the impact that this is going to have on our customers is profound”.
“We’re going to do everything possible to support them through it in terms of the cancellations,” he added.
According to Nasr, the first set of cancellations that were processed on Thursday affects “largely long-haul international flights due to depart tonight [Thursday]”.
“The cancellations will proceed and grow in magnitude,” he remarked.
“By tomorrow evening, we expect to have cancelled flights affecting over 100,000 customers, and then, of course, by the time we get to 1am on Saturday morning, we’ll be completely grounded.
“We expect that that will affect 130,000 customers a day.”
Nasr said that impacted customers will receive notifications via email or SMS.
“We’re going to make every attempt we can to rebook our customers on over 120 other airlines, including our competitors,” he added.
“But of course, and unfortunately, because this is the peak of the summer travel season, there are very few seats available out there.
“For those customers who we are unable to re accommodate, we’ll offer them a choice of two options. The first is a full refund of their ticket and any associated Air Canada services, and the second is an option to rebook their travel for a later date without any change fee.”
According to the carrier, passengers booked between 15-18 August can change flights for free if tickets were bought or Aeroplan rewards redeemed by 13 August. Changes can be made to travel between 21 August and 12 September 2025.
The carrier says contact centre wait times may be longer than usual.
In September 2024, Air Canada faced the prospect of shutting down most of its flights due to a potential pilot strike – a scenario that would have impacted hundreds of Aussie travellers daily. However, that strike was averted after AC pilots approved a new contract with higher wages.
For more info on Air Canada’s services, visit www.aircanada.com/home/au.
