Canada Pilot Strike Hits Air Transat Holiday Flights

Published on Dec 9, 2025, 9:21 am CST

8 min read

Key points

Air Transat pilots have issued a 72 hour strike notice allowing a walkout as early as December 10, 2025
Air Transat is gradually suspending flights on December 8 and 9 and preparing a full shutdown to avoid stranding passengers
The carrier plans limited repatriation flights and extra capacity on some routes to bring customers back to Canada during any strike
Most winter sun and transatlantic leisure routes from Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec City could be suspended for an open ended period
Preemptive cancellations before a strike give travelers a choice of refund or rebooking under Canadian passenger rights rules
Travelers with near term trips should monitor their booking closely, avoid self cancelling, and price backup options on other airlines

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest disruption on winter sun routes from Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec City to the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, and key European leisure cities
Best Times To Travel: Departures before December 10 may still operate but late evening December 9 flights and all travel from December 10 onward should be treated as high risk until a deal is reached
Onward Travel And Changes: Cruise departures and non refundable hotel stays that rely on Air Transat feeder flights are at particular risk, so build extra buffer or move to other carriers where possible
Refunds And Compensation: For preemptive cancellations Air Transat must offer a choice of refund or rebooking and some passengers may later qualify for compensation under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check your flight status daily, wait for airline instructions before cancelling yourself, document expenses, and compare backup options on Air Canada, WestJet, and other carriers in case operations shut down

A looming Air Transat pilot strike is now the biggest single risk to winter holiday flights out of Canada, with a 72 hour strike notice setting up a possible walkout from 3:00 a.m. ET on December 10, 2025, and the airline already cancelling services in the run up. The Air Line Pilots Association, ALPA, which represents roughly 700 Air Transat pilots, says it is prepared to stop work if talks fail, while the carrier has begun a controlled shutdown to avoid leaving aircraft, crews, and passengers stranded across its leisure network. For travelers, this turns the Air Transat pilot strike from background noise into an urgent planning problem for Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, and Europe trips.

The Air Transat pilot strike would pause much of the airline's winter program from Canada to sun destinations and Europe, forcing travelers either to accept repatriation flights back to Canada or to rebook on competing carriers if they still need to reach cruises, resort stays, or family visits.

What Air Transat And The Union Have Announced

On December 7, ALPA served Air Transat with a formal 72 hour strike notice under the Canada Labour Code, allowing pilots to strike as early as 3:00 a.m. ET on December 10 if there is no tentative agreement. The union frames the move as leverage to secure what it calls a modern contract, arguing that current pay and conditions lag peers and that the airline has benefited from strong post pandemic demand.

Air Transat responded with a public notice warning that operations will be disrupted from the moment any strike begins and outlining an action plan built around repatriation and an orderly stop to flying. The airline says it will operate special flights and add capacity on some existing services in order to bring as many travelers as possible back to their point of origin in Canada, then gradually suspend regular flights between December 8 and 9 to ensure no passengers or crews are marooned abroad when the strike window opens.

Management has also used the public bargaining to highlight its latest pay offer, which Reuters and other outlets report as a 59 percent salary increase spread over five years plus improvements in working conditions, calling the strike notice premature and unnecessary given what it describes as progress at the table. ALPA counters that headline numbers do not match the real value of the deal and that the company has had ample time to align pay with market rates.

Where And When Disruptions Are Most Likely

Air Transat is a leisure focused carrier with a network built around nonstop and seasonal flights from Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, and several other Canadian cities to high demand winter destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida, and Europe. As the airline activates its strike contingency plan, travelers are already seeing cancellations and schedule changes on flights departing December 8 and 9, even before the legal strike start time.

The company has stated that its goal is to complete repatriation flying and to park its fleet by the time the strike could start. In practice, that means most regularly scheduled flights from December 10 onward should be treated as at risk, even if they still appear as operating in booking engines or on airport departure boards. Routes with no clear backup from other carriers, such as certain secondary cities in Europe or seasonal sun destinations from Quebec City, may be among the first to see cuts as the airline concentrates limited resources on the densest markets and on bringing current customers home.

Because the strike notice covers all Air Transat pilots, any walkout is expected to be system wide rather than limited to a particular aircraft type or base. Travelers seeing a status of "cancelled" or "schedule change" in their booking should assume that their original itinerary will not operate and look for next steps from the airline.

How Long Could The Air Transat Shutdown Last

Neither ALPA nor Air Transat has put a public end date on any potential strike. The company's own language says operations will be disrupted until an agreement is reached, which makes this an open ended risk that could last days or longer depending on how talks evolve and whether the federal government intervenes.

Recent experience with the Air Canada flight attendants strike in August 2025 shows how quickly a major Canadian carrier shutdown can ripple through the system, with hundreds of thousands of passengers affected in a matter of days and a week or more needed to rebuild the schedule even after a return to work order. That is not a one to one template, but it is a realistic benchmark for how long it can take a big airline to untangle stranded aircraft and crews and reseat disrupted travelers.

For Air Transat customers, the practical takeaway is that any trip relying on the airline between mid December and the peak holiday period carries elevated risk until there is a signed deal. Even if a strike is averted at the last minute, schedules may already be trimmed and cabins oversold relative to remaining capacity.

Refunds, Rebooking, And Canadian Passenger Rights

For flights that Air Transat cancels preemptively before any strike actually begins, Canadian rules treat the disruption as within the airline's control rather than a pure external labour event. In those cases, the airline must offer affected passengers a choice between a refund to the original form of payment and rebooking at the earliest opportunity, either on its own flights or on a partner if necessary.

Separately, the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, APPR, set out compensation for inconvenience when large carriers like Air Transat cancel or significantly delay flights for reasons within their control that are not required for safety. Depending on arrival delay and other conditions, compensation can reach up to $1,000.00 (CAD) per passenger, although eligibility on strike related files is often contested and may ultimately hinge on whether a particular cancellation is classified as preemptive or caused by an active labour disruption.

If Air Transat cancels after a strike has formally begun, the legal analysis becomes more complex, and travelers may need to rely on a combination of Montreal Convention reimbursement for out of pocket expenses and APPR obligations that vary by disruption category. Independent advocacy sites stress that airlines do not get to unilaterally cap hotel or meal reimbursements and that passengers sometimes have to push back or pursue claims later if initial responses are limited.

One key point is that if you choose to cancel your ticket yourself purely out of concern that a strike might happen, APPR does not require the airline to offer a refund or alternate travel beyond whatever its fare rules already allow. Some carriers voluntarily relax change rules ahead of expected turmoil, but that is a commercial policy choice, not a guaranteed right.

Practical Steps For Travelers In The Next Two Weeks

Travelers booked on Air Transat between now and late December should treat this as a live operational risk, not a background political story. Start by logging into your booking or speaking with your travel advisor to confirm contact details and to see whether your itinerary already shows as cancelled, rescheduled, or unchanged.

If your flight has already been cancelled by the airline, decide whether you prefer a refund or rebooking based on how critical the trip is, then document all communication and keep screenshots of offers. If you have a cruise departure, a tour start date, or non refundable accommodation tied to your Air Transat flight, strongly consider moving to Air Canada, WestJet, or another carrier on a through ticket even if your original booking technically still shows as operating, because last minute options can disappear quickly when a shutdown looms.

For those traveling in several weeks rather than days, it may make sense to wait a little longer before making irreversible moves, but you can still start contingency planning. Look at alternative routings that might connect through U.S. hubs on different airlines, check how flexible your hotel and cruise bookings are, and review your travel insurance policy to see what it does or does not cover for labour disruptions. If a negotiated settlement emerges, you will have lost little by having a backup plan ready.

Finally, if you are already abroad on an Air Transat ticket, follow the airline's alerts closely and respond promptly to any repatriation offers, especially if you are in a smaller destination with limited service. In a shrinking schedule, waiting for a more convenient date or time can mean missing the last available seat home for several days.