“We're focused on making this right”: Air Canada’s Nasr & Pierce on restoring service & trust post-strike

This story was updated on Wednesday, August 20 at 2:54 p.m. EST

After a nearly four-day strike grounded aircraft and disrupted travel for more than half a million passengers, Air Canada has begun the complex process of restarting operations and rebuilding trust.

Late Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 19), flights gradually began resuming after the airline reached a tentative agreement, earlier that morning, with the Air Canada Component of CUPE, which represents some 10,400 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge.

“We're thrilled that our flight attendants are getting a deal they deserve,” said Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s executive vice president and chief operations officer, in an interview with PAX Tuesday afternoon. 

READ MORE: “The strike has ended”: Air Canada & union reach tentative agreement; airline to begin resuming flights

He’s calling the agreement “industry leading,” highlighting provisions around long-contested ground pay and advantages for junior members.

The exact terms of the deal are still surfacing, but according to a CBC News report, it 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.

Air Canada is also, reportedly, offering 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, the report claims.

CBC reports that flight attendants will only vote on the proposed salary increases.

A turbulent week

The flight attendant strike, which began early Saturday morning (Aug. 16), came after nearly nine months of negotiations.

Though the federal government quickly invoked the Canada Labour Code to mandate binding arbitration through the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), union leaders defied the directive, arguing for workers’ constitutional right to strike.

The CIRB later ruled the job action unlawful, but that didn’t stop picket lines from forming at major Canadian airports while flights remained parked.

Nasr emphasized that ground pay—compensation for work flight attendants perform before takeoff and after landing—had been on the table for several months. This was a key sticking point in the negotiations.

“With this arrangement, Air Canada flight attendants are going to lead the industry,” he said of the tentative deal. “They're going to be trailblazers in several aspects.”

Massive operational rebuild

But restarting an airline like Air Canada is not like flipping a light switch.

Nasr offered up one example. “Take our flight to Sydney, Australia, tonight from Vancouver. We’re going to operate it. It's about 16–17 hours to get down there, so a day. A brand-new crew, they need to have a rest period. That's another day. Then we fly the plane back to Canada. That's day three. Just to rebuild that one route—that’s three days.”

Multiply that process across 260 aircraft and a global network, and the scale of the restart becomes clear. Planes that sat idle must be inspected, maintained, and cleared for flight. Crews need to be repositioned. Logistics, safety protocols, and rebooking systems must work in unison.

Then there’s getting folks home. Nasr said the airline flies about 130,000 customers a day on the Main Line and Rouge during the peak summer travel season.

“We estimate well in excess of 100,000 [Canadians] need to be returned home,” said Nasr. “We’ve been very actively rebooking on other airlines – and I need to double underline our thanks and gratitude to the trade community.”

He said travel advisors rebooked almost as many customers – tens of thousands – on other airlines as Air Canada has with its automation systems – “which is incredible.”

And many customers have, indeed, been automatically rebooked on alternate flights with other carriers.

I experienced this myself last Saturday: within two hours of seeing my San Francisco–Toronto flight cancelled, Air Canada rebooked me on an itinerary via United to Boston that night, followed by a connection home to Toronto Pearson on Jazz (which was not affected by the strike).

Of course, others weren’t as lucky and remain stranded in destinations around the world.

Nasr said about 5,000 Air Canada employees, combined with automation technology, are currently working to get customers where they need to be.

Extra aircraft?

Are there plans to send extra aircraft to destinations to assist? Eventually. The focus, first, is to deliver a schedule, Nasr said. 

“As soon as we get climb up that curve, over the next several days, we will add extra capacity,” he said, suggesting that Cuba will be prioritized due to a lack of accommodation options.

Air Canada has indicated that it may take seven to ten days to fully restore its operations. During this period, some flights will be cancelled until the schedule stabilizes, the airline said.

Only customers with confirmed bookings whose flights are shown as operating should go to the airport.

Air Canada will also offer options to those with cancelled flights, including obtaining a full refund or receiving a credit for future travel.

“We’re going to do the right thing”

Throughout the disruption – and as PAX has reported – travel advisors worked around the clock, often without compensation to support stranded customers.

Nasr acknowledged their contributions directly. “The travel trade community are vital business partners for Air Canada. We couldn’t be more appreciative. When an advisor puts a customer on an Air Canada flight, that’s a promise our brand is making. And candidly, we failed to live up to it. Period,” he said. “We've got to own that. We've got to make it right.”

To begin making amends, Nasr said Air Canada will reimburse customers for out-of-pocket transportation expenses they incurred when the airline couldn’t provide alternate arrangements—covering tickets for plane, train, bus, or ferry tickets purchased independently.

The complete details of this policy are now posted on Air Canada's website (click here and scroll down down to "Flexible Rebooking Policy and Cancellations").

“We’re going to do the right thing,” Nasr said. “We’re going to get people their money back.”

Air Canada’s global sales team will also be engaging with travel advisors directly, helping address specific concerns, he said.

“They're going to be listening, as they always do. We're focused on making this right,” he said.

Looking inward

Asked why negotiations reached such a boiling point, Nasr said “there’s going to be a lot of soul searching and analysis as to why this occurred.”

“This was not necessary. We were fully committed to a Canadian industry leading contract for our flight attendants for several months,” he said.

Now, the focus turns to rebuilding internal relationships, especially with CUPE, the union.

“They are a key stakeholder in Air Canada’s success," Nasr said. "We have a responsibility to them, and they have a responsibility to the brand and our customers. That’s what travel advisors expect of us. That’s what the Canadian public expects of us—to get on with it.”

The rebuilds begins

Though Air Canada has not disclosed the financial cost of the strike, Nasr noted how the airline has suspended its Q3 and full-year guidance, underscoring the seriousness of the impact.

“We will give an update in due course,” he said. “At this point, the most important thing is getting everybody back on their way and ensuring customers are where they need to be. Then we will determine the costs associated with it, and we'll make appropriate disclosures.”

“For now, we’ve got our heads down, laser focused on the prize,” he said.

That “prize” isn’t just operational normalcy—it’s restoring faith. But among stranded passengers, and frustrated travel advisors, the airline faces a long runway toward recovery.

Still, Nasr remains optimistic.

“It starts with getting planes back in the sky and getting customers moving again. We've got to return every customer to their origin, or allow them to get on their trip that they had booked. And it will continue from there,” he said.

The airline also needs to rebuild its relationship with its flight attendants, he said. “Unfortunately, this came to a point that none of us wanted to see. It doesn't reflect who we are," he said.

Get the latest from The Flash

Lisa Pierce, vice president global sales for Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations, also spoke to PAX on Tuesday, expressing her deep gratitude for the agency community’s support during the strike.

She said updates are coming out “fast and furious” and that it has been her mission to ensure agencies are receiving details as fast as possible.

“We’ve been working on this non-stop for 72 hours, 24/7,” Pierce said. “Getting the most up-to-date information to the agencies and agents that are taking care of our customers is my number one priority.”

Central to that effort is The Flash, Air Canada’s essential newsletter for travel advisors. “The Flash contains everything you need to know, minute by minute, as soon as information becomes available,” Pierce explained.

While traditionally sent out every two weeks, The Flash also serves as a rapid-response tool for time-sensitive content – like strike updates. It has proven invaluable over the past several days.

Pierce emphasized that while many agency partners are already subscribed, independent agents may not be aware of this resource.

“This is an opportunity to share so they know where to find information. Anyone can sign up,” she said.

Links in The Flash direct subscribers to the latest updates, making it easy to stay in the loop. To sign up, click here.

No commission recalls

Pierce noted that Air Canada, in recent days, has implemented policy changes to ease the burden on advisors.

The airline, to clarify, is not recalling commission on bookings that were cancelled during the strike. “[Advisors] are representing Air Canada’s brand to our customers. They are our partners and we could not do this without them,” she said. “We all have the same objective and we need to all work together.”

As travel advisors communicate the situation to their customers, it's important they stay current, Pierce advised.

“Understanding what's happening is important – even if we can't control everything,” she said,

Air Canada's traveller page and The Flash newsletter are good starting points for staying up to date.

What will it take to repair Air Canada’s image? The “immediate need,” Pierce said, is to get people to their destinations.

And Air Canada’s employees also play a role. “We are an amazing team and we’re all working to make sure we are taking care of our customers and letting everybody know that we hear them, we see them, and we're here for them,” she said. “We need to do that as much as possible.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming winter vacation season, Pierce encouraged agents to stay optimistic and inspired.

“We'll be back to normal in seven to ten days and we'll be sharing a lot of exciting new things to promote travel,” she said.

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