Air Canada makes headway on claims following summer strike
Posted October 21, 2025 8:39 am.
A couple of months after about 10,000 unionized Air Canada flight attendants went on strike, the airline says it’s still chipping away at resolving customer complaints.
Last month, 1130 NewsRadio reported around 60,000 open claims. As of Oct. 20, the airline says that number has fallen to 24,484. However, many of the claims have been open for a month and a half to two months.
It says, “As of October 8, we’ve closed over 48 per cent of expense claims. We’re resolving more than 1,400 claims every day.”
The four-day, mid-August strike caused delays and cancellations on hundreds of flights across the country. The job action took place after the union representing flight attendants weren’t able to reach a deal with their employer.
Workers who were on the picket lines protested not being paid for duties performed while aircraft weren’t in the air.
Things got heated when the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered flight attendants back to work, which the workers defied, leading the board to rule the strike was unlawful.
In early September, flight attendants dismissed the airline’s wage offer with a 99.1 per cent vote.
Under rules set out by the Canadian Transportation Agency’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, “When a flight is cancelled, or once a delay reaches 3 hours, an airline must also offer alternate travel arrangements in the same class of service and using a reasonable route. The airline must rebook the passenger on the next available flight operated by them or an airline with which they have a commercial agreement.”
The airline says most claims from that time will be fully resolved by the end of October.
