The Air Canada strike severely impacted travel plans, and a local travel agency is still trying to get stranded travelers back home.
Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge passengers were grounded because of CUPE’s labour strike, with 10,000 flight attendants walking off the job.
Air Canada flight attendants reached a tentative contract agreement with the airline, after all-night talks. CUPE said it will be submitted to their membership for a vote.
Travel advisor and owner of the Blowes&Stewart Travel Group in Stratford Rob Blowes said lots of Stratford customers are currently stranded in several destinations.
“We’ve pretty much had to drop everything and help these people get home or re-arrange people’s trips,” said Blowes.
“We’re trying to help people as best as we can.”
Air Canada says flights will resume Tuesday evening, but it could take a week or more to get back to full operation.
Hundreds of thousands of flights were cancelled.
Along with this being a stressful situation, Blowes adds they’re on a time-crunch as people need to get home as soon as possible.
“They don’t want to be there for two more weeks, they want to be there for two more days at the most,” said Blowes.
“If they are on the other side of the world, we’ve got time change issues we’ve got to deal with.”
Blowes said in situations like this, it’s important to have insurance to deal with cancelled flights.
Air Canada said the Canada Industrial Relations Board had declared the flight attendant strike unlawful on Monday, ordering CUPE leaders to direct flight attendants to return to work.
National president Mark Hancock says they’re committed to making sure the staff do a job they love while being able to take care of loved ones.
