WestJet has cancelled hundreds of flights and begun grounding aircraft after roughly 4,400 of its flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday, August 2, 2026, launching the first cabin-crew strike in the Calgary-based carrier's history.
The flight attendants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 8125, began their walkout at 12:01 a.m. Mountain Time after a 72-hour strike notice expired without a new collective agreement. WestJet, Canada's second-largest airline, said it had already started grounding parts of its Boeing 737 fleet before the strike began, in an effort to reduce disruption and avoid stranding passengers and aircraft away from their bases.
By the time the walkout started, the airline had cancelled more than 300 flights, leaving thousands of travellers scrambling to rebook during one of the busiest periods of the year.
At the centre of the dispute is a long-standing grievance over unpaid work. Like many carriers in Canada, WestJet has traditionally paid cabin crew only for time in the air, not for the hours spent boarding passengers, managing delays or waiting between flights. CUPE argues that its members are effectively being asked to work for free, and the union has made ground pay the defining issue of negotiations that have dragged on for roughly 11 months.
Support for action was overwhelming. In an earlier ballot, more than 99 percent of participating flight attendants voted in favour of a strike on a turnout above 97 percent. Under Canadian labour law, the union was then required to observe a cooling-off period before it could legally walk out, setting the stage for the August 2 deadline.
"We tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal that recognizes the value of the work cabin crews do," said CUPE 8125 President Alia Hussain.
WestJet had escalated the standoff days earlier by issuing its own lockout notice in response to the union's strike warning. Group chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech said the decision to issue that notice was "not one that was made lightly," adding that the airline regretted the uncertainty for its guests and that its commitment remained "at the bargaining table."
The stoppage is a significant test for WestJet, which has grown into a national and increasingly international operator in recent years while pushing to keep its costs competitive against larger rival Air Canada and a field of low-cost challengers. A prolonged shutdown of its cabin-crew workforce effectively halts most of the airline's passenger flying, with knock-on effects for connecting travellers, cargo and crew scheduling that can take days to unwind even after a deal is reached.
For now, passengers booked on WestJet face a fluid situation and are being urged to check their flight status before travelling to the airport. Entitlements to rebooking or refunds are governed by Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations, though compensation for labour-related cancellations is often limited because such disruptions can fall outside an airline's direct control. Past Canadian aviation labour disputes have, at times, prompted calls for federal intervention, and pressure is likely to build for a swift resolution the longer the walkout continues.
Sources: AeroTime, Aviation24. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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