Frustration still high for Air Canada passengers in Winnipeg, despite tentative agreement

ManitobaA tentative agreement to halt the contract dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants has not put an end to the anger and frustration some Winnipeg travellers are feeling toward the airliner, as their plans remain on hold. Some passengers say customer service has been non–existent as they look to rebook flightsDave Baxter · CBC News · Posted: Aug 19, 2025 9:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoAlice Kapinga says she’s frustrated with Air Canada after her flight home to Denmark was cancelled due to a flight attendants’ strike that began on Saturday. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)A tentative agreement to halt the contract dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants has not put an end to the anger and frustration some travellers in Winnipeg are feeling toward the airline, as their plans remain on hold. “We are stranded in a different country,” Alice Kapinga said at Winnipeg’s airport on Tuesday, as she was still trying to get a flight back to her home in Denmark.”Do they want us to sleep on the streets? Because we can’t get any hotels. Everything is up in the air, and no one knows what to do.”More than 10,000 Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike Saturday, after the airline and the union failed to reach a deal ahead of the deadline.The aviation analytics firm Cirium said that as of Monday afternoon, Air Canada had called off at least 1,219 domestic flights and 1,339 international flights since last Thursday, when the carrier began gradually suspending its operations ahead of the job action.The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, said the two sides struck a deal early Tuesday morning after nine hours of talks with the assistance of the chief mediator appointed by the federal government.The tentative deal will be presented to the union’s membership, which will have an opportunity to ratify it.But Air Canada has warned that it could take a few days to get its schedule back to normal, and that flights could be delayed for up to a week. Kapinga was supposed to fly out of Winnipeg on Monday, but said that flight was cancelled due to the labour dispute.She says she was told by Air Canada not to go to the airport to try to book a new flight, but she did anyway, because she hasn’t been able to get any answers online or over the phone.”With the number they give on the website, what they did was they told us that all our agencies are booked right now, and then they just hang up,” she said. “It’s not even putting us in the line or anything.”We can wait two hours on the phone if that’s what we need to do, but they just hang up.”Stephanie Ens was at Winnipeg’s airport on Tuesday morning trying to get answers after her Saturday flight to New Brunswick, where she was planning to spend time with friends, was cancelled due to the strike. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)Winnipeg resident Stephanie Ens was also at the airport Tuesday trying to get answers, after her Saturday flight to New Brunswick, where she was planning to spend time with friends, was cancelled. “It’s bonkers to me. If they wanted to avoid disruption, they should have hired more staff to answer phones, or improved their online booking options,” Ens said.”If they want to hold off making a deal, they should at least provide decent customer service.”Some of the tools she has been told are on the Air Canada website to help people reschedule or get information have been no help at all, she said.”So I’ve been waiting to try and get hold of someone at Air Canada, haven’t been able to talk to anyone, so now I’m here trying to rebook the trip.”One of the main issues for flight attendants was ground pay — compensation for work performed while planes are on the ground. Flight attendants historically haven’t been paid for time spent loading and unloading passengers, or when flights are cancelled or delayed.CBC News has learned the tentative deal secures Air Canada flight attendants at least 60 minutes of ground pay for their time before each flight, at a rate of 50 per cent of a flight attendant’s hourly rate, with that rate increasing five per cent each year.The airline is also proposing immediate pay increases of 12 per cent for flight attendants with five years or less of service with Air Canada, and eight per cent for those who have worked at the airline longer than that. Salaries would increase three per cent in the second year, 2.5 per cent in the third year and 2.75 per cent in the fourth year.Despite tentative Air Canada deal, travellers still frustrated with airlineAir Canada flights are resuming after a tentative deal put an end to a strike that began on the weekend, but not all of the airline’s customers flying out of Winnipeg Tuesday were happy following the labour disruption.With files from Gavin Axelrod