Air Canada travelers brace for impact: What to know if your flight is canceled

Summer travelers are facing uncertainty as the clock winds down on a possible strike by Air Canada flight attendants, which the airline said would force it to cancel almost all of its scheduled flights as soon as Saturday.

The Canadian carrier said it was suspending its schedule and trying to get passengers booked with other airlines to limit disruptions, but already hundreds of flights have been called off since Thursday, leaving travelers stranded and scrambling during the busy summer travel season. By Friday's end, 500 total flights were expected to be canceled.

Both the union that represents about 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants and the airline say disagreements over key issues, including pay raises, have brought contract talks to a standstill.

A complete shutdown of the country’s largest airline threatens to impact about 130,000 people a day. Here’s what to know about the cancellations and your rights as a passenger:

Air Canada said it would reach out via email or text to let customers know if their flights are canceled.

By late Friday afternoon, Air Canada had called off at least 128 domestic flights and 194 international flights that were scheduled to depart on Friday and Saturday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. On Thursday, 18 domestic flights and four international flights were canceled.

Flight attendants are threatening to strike at 1 a.m. EDT Saturday if they don't have a new contract by then. If the walkout happens, the airline said it would suspend all of its Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights, but not the regional Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz Aviation and PAL Airlines.

How long the planes will be grounded remains to be seen. Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr has said it could take a week to fully restart operations once a deal has been reached.

Passengers whose travel is impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.

The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. But it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”

Passengers with the flexibility to reschedule their travel plans can also rebook their flights for dates between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12 at no additional cost, Air Canada said.

The airline says that under federal regulations, flight cancellations caused by a strike or lockout are considered outside the carrier's control, meaning customers are not eligible for compensation for food and lodging expenses incurred during the labor dispute.

The impact of Air Canada's flight cancellations are spilling over into other parts of the world. Air Canada has service to more than 85 airports worldwide, and it operates 430 daily flights between Canada and the U.S. alone.

It is also part of the Star Alliance, a global network of major airlines that offer coordinated schedules and other travel benefits.

United Airlines, one of its Star Alliance partners, said it is stepping in to help passengers who might be stranded at airports in cities across Canada: Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa, Québec City, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary and Toronto.

On its travel alert page, United said it was waiving fees for eligible customers to rebook travel on a United flight departing through Aug. 27. United said the new flights must be between the same cities as the original tickets.

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal.

By the end of July, the union put it to a vote, and 99.7% approved a strike. The union on Wednesday gave Air Canada a 72-hour strike notice. The airline responded with a so-called lockout notice, saying it would prevent the flight attendants from working on Saturday.

The union said Friday it rejected a proposal from the airline to enter a binding arbitration process, which would prevent flight attendants from walking off the job and allow a mediator to decide the terms of the new contract. The union says it prefers to negotiate directly with the airline on a deal that its members can then vote on.

Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, Air Canada's head of human resources, said the company was weighing all of its options, including asking for government intervention.

Both the union and the airline say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.

The airline said its latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years. But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation.

Vancouver-based flight attendant Henly Larden, who has worked for Air Canada since 2017, said the union also won't back down on its goal to get flight attendants paid for the time they're on the ground. Larden, 33, called it a "very archaic expectation” to work for free during the boarding process.

“Just because it's a past practice doesn't mean here in 2025 that it's OK or it's right, and we want to change that going forward,” she said.

Air Canada flight attendants interrupt Air Canada executives during a press conference as a possible strike looms in Toronto on Thursday, August 14, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE speaks during a press conference regarding a possible flight attendant strike in Toronto on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Air Canada executives are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a news conference as a possible strike looms, in Toronto, on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE - This May 16, 2020 file photo shows Air Canada check screens at Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Air Canada executives leave after they are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a press conference as a possible strike looms, in Toronto, on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Air Canada executives are interrupted by Air Canada flight attendants during a press conference as a possible strike looms, in Toronto, on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.

Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.

The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.

In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.

Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.

Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.

“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.

Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.

Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."

Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.

The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.

“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.

The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.

Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.

The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.

The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.

The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.

Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.

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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.

Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)