Air Canada cancels hundreds of flights as potential strike by flight attendants looms

TORONTO -- More than 300 Air Canada flights, many of them international trips, have been canceled as the clock ticked closer Friday to a possible strike by flight attendants, leaving travelers stranded around the world and scrambling during the peak summer travel season.

The bitter contract fight between Canada's largest airline and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants escalated Friday as the union turned down the airline's request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which would eliminate its right to strike and allow a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.

Flight attendants were poised to walk off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking out the flight attendants from airports. The actions threaten to impact about 130,000 travelers a day.

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu on Friday urged both sides to work with federal mediators “and get a deal done.”

“Time is precious and Canadians are counting on you,” Hajdu said in a statement.

The Canadian carrier already started canceling flights Thursday. It expects to call off 500 flights by the end of Friday and almost all of its flights by Saturday morning. A complete shutdown threatens to impact about 130,000 people a day, and it could affect some 25,000 Canadians a day who may become stranded abroad.

By Friday afternoon, Air Canada had called off at least 128 domestic flights and 194 international flights that were scheduled to depart on Friday and Saturday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. On Thursday, when the airline said it was beginning it’s “phased wind down” of most operations, 18 domestic flights and four international flights were canceled.

Montreal resident Alex Laroche, 21, and his girlfriend had been saving since Christmas for their European vacation. Now their $8,000 trip with nonrefundable lodging is on the line as they wait to hear from Air Canada about the fate of their Saturday night flight to Nice, France.

Laroche said he considered booking new flights with a different carrier, but he said most of them are nearly full and more than double the $3,000 they paid for their original tickets.

“At this point, it's just a waiting game,” he said.

Laroche said he was initially upset over the union's decision to go on strike, but that he had a change of heart after reading about the key issues at the center of the contract negotiations, including the issue of wages.

“Their wage is barely livable,” Laroche said.

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal.

Both sides say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.

The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada." But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation.

Passengers whose travel is impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.

The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. But it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”

How long the airline’s planes will be grounded remains to be seen. But Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr has said it could take up to a week to fully restart operations once a tentative deal is reached.

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Associated Press airlines writer Rio Yamat reported from Las Vegas.