Air Canada says it will cover hotels, meals, ground transportation and other expenses for travellers impacted by the recent flight attendant strike.
A Thursday announcement from the airline says “reasonable” accommodation and out-of-pocket expenses will be covered for customers whose travel was cancelled, or delayed, between Aug. 15 and 23, due to the labour disruption.
“We deeply apologize to all customers whose travel plans were disrupted, and we’re committed to making things right for all customers — particularly those who were stranded during their trip,” Air Canada Executive Vice-President and chief operations officer Mark Nasr said in a news release.
“Earlier this week, we put in place a special commitment to reimburse out-of-pocket transportation costs, including on other airlines, rail, ground or ferries,” he continued. “Today, we are taking another step forward, delivering with our policies to make things right.”
Claims must be accompanied by receipts and can be submitted online through the airline’s customer relations portal.
The airline claims that this “exceptional policy” goes above its legal obligations. Air Canada previously announced that it would reimburse customers who made their own alternate travel arrangements if the airline couldn’t help them when their flights were cancelled due to the strike.
An estimated 500,000 passengers had their flights cancelled due to the strike, which began Saturday morning. Early Tuesday, Air Canada and the union that represents its more than 10,000 flight attendants reached a tentative agreement that includes annual salary increases and pay for the work flight attendants do on the ground before a plane takes off.
Many airlines do not pay flight attendants for so-called “ground time,” which can include boarding, pre-flight safety checks, disembarking and delays. Notable exceptions include Delta, American Airlines and Porter.
Under the tentative agreement, starting this year Air Canada’s flight attendants would receive half their hourly wage for 60 minutes of ground time on narrow-body aircraft and 70 minutes on wide-body planes. Ground pay would increase to 70 per cent of their wage in 2028.
Under the terms of the new agreement, flight attendants’ annual salary cap would also rise to $88,000 from $80,000. Flight attendants will vote on the proposed pay increases next week.
In the Thursday news release, the airline also said it would be operating “close to its full network capacity” by Friday.
With files from The Canadian Press
