By Adriano Marchese

Air Canada and its flight attendants' union are fast-tracking their wage dispute, skipping the mediation process to go straight to binding arbitration.

The Canadian airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees asked to dispense with the mediation process and have the wage component proceed directly to arbitration.

In early September, nearly all of Air Canada's 10,000 flight attendants rejected the tentative deal struck by their union and the carrier in August that had ended a nearly four-day shutdown at the country's largest airline.

Arbitration was one of two possible outcomes. The two parties had said that the dispute would go to either to mediation, or possibly arbitration, either of which would avoid further disruptions to Air Canada's flights, which transports about 130,000 customers a day.

Air Canada said it has agreed to CUPE's request, which will provide cabin crew with wage increases and their retro pay, dating back to April 2025.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2025 11:12 ET (15:12 GMT)

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