(CALGARY, CANADA) – WestJet has entered a recovery phase after the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees reached a tentative agreement to end a strike by flight attendants that grounded hundreds of flights and stranded passengers across the carrier’s network.
The Calgary based airline cancelled 16 flights on Tuesday, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. That represented about 3.6 percent of scheduled operations for the day. On Monday, 305 flights, or 62 percent of the total, were cancelled. All WestJet flights were grounded on Sunday when cabin crew walked off the job. In total, more than 900 flights have been cancelled since 1 August.
CUPE represents 4,400 flight attendants at WestJet. The union had been seeking pay for its members from the time they check in until they clock out, rather than mostly for time when the aircraft is in motion. The union says its members perform about 35 hours of unpaid work per month. Ground pay would compensate flight attendants for work done before boarding and after passengers leave the aircraft, including safety procedures and helping passengers.
Paying flight attendants only for time in the air is common practice among North American airlines, but it drew greater attention after the pandemic led to more ground delays and more unpaid work. Ground pay was a sticking point in the Air Canada flight attendant strike last summer. Those workers now receive half their hourly wage rate for 60 minutes of ground time on narrow body aircraft and 70 minutes on wide body planes. That will rise to 60 percent of the hourly rate in April, 65 percent in 2027 and 70 percent in 2028.
WestJet has not yet disclosed details of the tentative agreement, which will be presented to cabin crew for a ratification vote.
Travellers across the network continued to face disruption. Marsha Manuel, a passenger from Miramichi, New Brunswick, said she was stranded in Lisbon after her flight was cancelled. She received an email on Monday saying it would be rebooked within hours, but that did not happen. She tried calling the airline all day and finally reached an agent after a two and a half hour wait, only to have the call disconnected. A subsequent call offered a five hour wait. By Tuesday morning the estimated hold time was seven hours. She booked her hotel for two more nights with no information from WestJet on meal vouchers or accommodation.
In Toronto, Daniela Arango described being told she would need to take an hour long bus ride to Waterloo, Ontario, endure a six hour layover, fly to Calgary and then wait eight hours before reaching Edmonton. She was travelling with a four month old baby. Darlene Allen, also in Toronto, said her daughter was due to have a baby soon and she could not afford a delay. Her flight appeared to be on time, but she had considered driving across the country if necessary.
In St. John’s, Denise Chevalier learned she would not fly out until 6 August, three days later than planned, and was unsure whether she could extend her hotel stay. Elaine Allen arrived at the same airport nearly six hours early for her flight and said she fully supported the flight attendants’ right to strike. Jack Hart, flying home to Winnipeg after a family holiday in Toronto, said his wife had been under considerable strain trying to arrange travel for six people. He said extra costs to get everyone home or pay for another night in Toronto would have been substantial.
Passenger Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land was wearing a hand drawn baggage tag reading “We support WestJet cabin crew” at the airport on Tuesday. She said it was unfair that crew are not paid for ground work and wanted them to know she was not angry about the strike. She had booked a backup flight home for $1,000 Canadian dollars, equivalent to roughly $725 US, £580 or €665, but was able to cancel it.
Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to a choice of either a complete refund or rebooking on any airline. Travel consultant Moxey Munch, founder of Moxey Travels, said it is supposed to happen within 48 hours, but the busy summer season means there are unlikely to be enough seats to rebook everyone immediately. Passengers within Canada are not entitled to anything beyond the refund or rebooking. Passengers in Europe, however, fall under European air passenger rights rules and may be entitled to financial compensation, food vouchers or hotel stays depending on the length of the cancellation and delay.
Cirium estimates that WestJet flights should return to normal by Wednesday. The airline has said it is resuming operations and entering the recovery phase following the labour disruption.
WestJet operates a fleet of more than 180 aircraft serving over 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. The airline carried roughly 25 million passengers in 2025. The financial cost of the strike has not been officially disclosed, but industry estimates suggest each day of full grounding costs a carrier of WestJet’s size between $20 million and $25 million Canadian dollars, or $14.5 million to $18.1 million US, £11.6 million to £14.5 million and €13.3 million to €16.6 million.