As Canadian airlines grapple with the possibility of more labour disruptions on the horizon, air travellers face the prospect of more travel turmoil from strikes and lockouts due to limited competition, experts say.

Over the past year, there have been two major strikes within Canada’s airline industry, one by WestJet’s mechanics and the other by Air Canada’s flight attendants.

The two strikes, occurring in the summers of 2024 and 2025 respectively, only lasted days but that was enough to severely disrupt travel and trade nationally and cost the airlines over millions of dollars. It meant stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers, delaying transport of cargo and halting business for local tourism and businesses.

In 2024, it took weeks for WestJet to recover from labour action taken

See Full Page