TORONTO – After the strike, ended thanks to a tentative deal between the airline and its flight attendants, Air Canada is offering assistance in refunding passengers affected by cancellation of flights in the last days. As explained by the airline itself on a dedicated page on its website (here), passengers must complete a form with their flight details and provide a reason for the refund.
The online form must be completed only if: passengers booked directly with the airline (ticket starting with 014); passengers completed the portion of their journey with Air Canada and/or require a refund for an alternative method of transportation. The form, however, does not need to be completed if passengers booked through “Aeroplan,” through a travel agency, or if the flight was booked through another airline.
Hundreds of thousands of passengers have been affected by the Air Canada flight attendant strike, and it will take several days for traffic to return to normal. “Unfortunately, during this period, some flights will be cancelled until the schedule stabilizes. We will inform customers well in advance and offer options” said Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer, in a press release issued Tuesday evening. “We are working hard to fully restore confidence in our airline by starting to re-engage customers…”.
Nasr added that Air Canada has also launched an online dashboard (here) “so that anyone can transparently monitor our progress as our operations return to normal. We look forward to welcoming our customers and flight attendants back on board..” he said. The latest dashboard update, today while we are writing this article, indicated that 90% of domestic flights were expected to operate in the next 24 hours, along with 95% of cross-border flights and 54% of other international routes.
Flights resumed Tuesday afternoon after the airline reached a tentative agreement with the union representing over 10,000 flight attendants. The details of the agreement are still being finalized, but CTV managed to obtain some advance information from a union representative: flight attendants will receive a pay raise and will also begin receiving pay for ground work performed before takeoff, something they had previously not received and were specifically protesting. For this ground work, they should receive 50% of their salary for one hour before takeoff for smaller aircraft and for 70 minutes for larger aircraft. The new tentative agreement between the airline and the union, which expires on March 31, 2029, also stipulates that this pay should increase annually until it reaches 70% of their ground work pay by the time the agreement expires.
The provisional agreement will become final once workers approve it through a vote.
Photo: www.aircanada.com
