Over the last year, multiple Canadian airlines have ended up in labor disputes over the compensation, hours and work conditions of its crew.
In August 2025, a five-day walkout of the more than 10,000 flight attendants working for flagship airline Air Canada came to an end after arbitration that issued a return-to-work order in exchange for an agreement to compensate for non-flying ground work starting at 50% of regular rates.
Over 550,000 Air Canada passengers were affected by the more than 700 flights that were canceled during the walkout.
Four months later in December 2025, a pilot strike at the Montreal-based vacation airline Air Transat was narrowly avoided when the airline and the pilots’ association reached an eleventh-hour agreement securing wage increases.
WestJet cancels flights and grounds planes after strike notice
The second-largest airline in the country after Air Canada, Calgary-based WestJet is now the latest to reach an impasse with the union representing the 4,400 flight attendants working for it over compensation related to unpaid work done during pre-boarding and other ground operations.
With the 72-hour strike notice put out by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) ending at midnight on Aug. 2, the airline began canceling scheduled flights and grounding planes.
Related: Another airline cancels 8 flights to the U.S.
As of Saturday (August 1) morning, the airline canceled 81 flights from hubs such as Calgary (YYC) and Vancouver (YVR) to destinations including Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Honolulu.
WestJet has also begun grounding a number of its Boeing 737 planes as it starts operating on a reduced schedule until an agreement or full walkout. The looming strike also falls at the start of what is a long weekend and federal holiday across Canada.
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“The airline has started to issue cancelations and reduce flying”: WestJet to travelers
“To ensure the integrity of WestJet’s network, and to minimize the risk of stranding guests and aircraft, the airline has started to issue cancellations and reduce flying,” WestJet said in a statement. “These actions ensure the airline has complete control of its operations and can communicate with guests and crew to minimize people being stranded.”
For travelers with flights booked up to Aug. 4, WestJet has also put in place a flexible change/cancel policies that allows passengers whose fare class would otherwise not allow for free changes to change their travel free of charge.
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Full refunds to the original method of payment, however, will only be available to those booked in higher fare classes while everyone else can only get a travel credit; the change policy put in place in response to the strike says that refunds are based “on your fare rules, either to your original form of payment or as a Travel Bank credit.”
Alia Hussain, the president of the CUPE 8125 union representing the flight attendants, said that the while the union is “hopeful that we can still avoid a strike and remain committed to resolving this there” many underlying issues around flight attendant compensation “need to be resolved at the table.”
Related: Another airline closes after losing license, cancels all flights
