Why so many airlines face labour disruptions and why it could keep happening

Canadian travellers hoping for a new year without having to worry about a labour dispute may be out of luck, as 2026 will see most major airlines from this country facing off with unions across the bargaining table.

Industry and labour experts agree that while a strike or lockout is not guaranteed when airlines and the unions representing their employees negotiate, the skies ahead aren’t exactly clear, even after settling multiple disputes that rocked the industry in recent months.

In the most recent example, Air Transat had started cancelling flights the day before negotiations between the company and its pilots led to a tentative agreement, but that deal came just a few hours before a full-blown strike could begin.

That was just months after Air Canada flights were grounded for days when flight attendants walked off the job in the late summer. WestJet passengers faced similar cancellations in 2024 as mechanics were striking.

But negotiations aren’t over for these carriers.

WestJet will start 2026 in negotiations with flight attendants. Air Canada will see many ground crew and baggage workers bargaining a renewed contract. Porter Airlines is continuing to negotiate first-ever deals with pilots, dispatchers and flight attendants.

“They all have the potential to shut down the airlines in each of their respective contract negotiations,” said John Gradek, faculty lecturer in aviation management at McGill University.

Canadians have lived through travel disruptions over many of the popular travel periods in the last few years, and certainly more than in decades past.

One factor driving what may feel like a sudden spike in contract disputes is that many long-term deals have been expiring. Airlines such as Air Transat and Air Canada have been renegotiating contracts that were signed, in some cases, a decade ago. 

Contracts of that length are unusual, according to both labour and industry experts, but they were originally signed when some airlines such as Air Canada were facing harsher financial realities.

“They were looking at trying to figure out a way to get the airline industry to kind of get its act together in terms of profitability and survivability,” said Gradek, referring to the mid 2010s. 

Long contracts provided predictability and stability for the companies involved, but their industry and the economy writ large have changed a lot since then, with labour experts pointing out that unions and their members may feel they need to make up for lost time.

“There's a lot of things that people weren't thinking about in 2015 that are big issues now, like having survived a global pandemic that shut down global travel and the dramatic spike in the cost of living after years of basically zero inflation,” said Barry Eidlin, associate professor of sociology at McGill University. 

Eidlin also points out that in recent years, non-airline workers going on strike could be a motivating factor.