Australian services impacted by Air Canada cancellations

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Air Canada has started cancelling flights — including some to Australia — as tensions with its flight attendants ramp up toward possible strike action.

Overnight, the airline scrapped several dozen long-haul flights, including one from Vancouver to Sydney that was supposed to depart last night, plus the return Sydney-to-Vancouver trip set for tomorrow.

This comes after the union representing about 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants issued a 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday. The airline responded with its own lockout notice.

Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s chief operations officer, said they’ve begun a gradual suspension of operations and expect all flights to be paused by early Saturday morning. He warned that even under the best circumstances, restarting flights will take about a week.

The numbers are big — they’re estimating 500 cancelled flights by Friday night and up to 25,000 Canadians stranded abroad each day during a shutdown.

If your flight gets cancelled, you’ll get a full refund, and Air Canada says it’s trying to book passengers on other airlines “where possible.”

The union says the fight is about what they call “poverty wages” and unpaid labour for time spent working on the ground. At a news conference on Thursday, some flight attendants held signs reading “Unpaid work won’t fly” and “Poverty wages = UnCanadian.”

So, for now, if you’re flying Air Canada — especially to or from Australia — it might be time to check your booking twice.

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