Air Canada’s Crew Deal Could Reshape North American Airline Pay

Air Canada’s recent labour agreement with its flight attendants has the potential to reset expectations across North America.

 The resolution of a high-profile strike resulted in the country’s flag carrier agreeing to what many view as a fundamental shift in crew compensation: boarding pay.

 While long a demand from cabin crew unions, boarding pay has been repeatedly resisted by most North American carriers. Now that Canada’s largest airline has agreed to it, the implications may spread far beyond Canadian borders.

The strike, which saw thousands of flights disrupted and passengers stranded across Canada, the US, and Europe, was centred not just on wages but on the value of time. Specifically, the time cabin crew spend on duty while the aircraft is on the ground. 

This includes performing safety checks, assisting passengers with boarding, stowing luggage, managing seat issues, briefing unaccompanied minors, and preparing the cabin for departure. Until now, in most North American contracts, this period has been unpaid.

Under the new Air Canada agreement, flight attendants will now receive boarding pay for the first time. 

The deal compensates crews for an hour of ground duty before narrowbody departures, and 70 minutes before widebody flights. 

Initially, this pay will be set at half their standard hourly rate, but it is due to increase to 70% by the fourth year of the contract.

 This represents a structural shift in how time is valued, and how airlines may be required to define duty time going forward.

Historically, North American airlines have only paid cabin crew from “blocks out to blocks in” — that is, when the aircraft leaves the gate until it returns. 

Pre-flight and post-flight work, which can take over two hours in some cases, has never been paid at the same hourly rate as in-flight work, if at all.

 The model is an anachronism that dates back to early aviation, when cabin crew worked smaller aircraft with shorter turnaround times, fewer passengers, and simpler service expectations.

In 2025, that model no longer fits reality. Aircraft are larger, turnarounds are longer, and the complexity of the boarding process has grown significantly. 

Boarding now involves dealing with larger hand luggage allowances, managing carry-on disputes in the absence of consistent gate-check policies, helping disabled passengers to their seats, and handling the demands of a mixed travel demographic that includes business travellers, families, and connecting passengers with multiple issues.

The real issue is not just the work itself, but the expectation of professionalism. Flight attendants are expected to be fully engaged from the moment the first passenger boards. They are managing the customer experience, enforcing regulations, and often de-escalating conflicts — all before a minute of paid time begins. That disconnect between duties and pay has become increasingly hard to defend.

Air Canada’s agreement is therefore a milestone. It is the first major North American airline to formally acknowledge boarding and other ground duties as paid work within the core cabin crew contract. This sets a precedent that other unions across the continent are likely to seize on, particularly at a time when cost of living pressures remain high and job expectations are expanding.

American Airlines, Southwest, Delta, and Alaska Airlines have all been in or around the negotiating table with their respective cabin crew unions. In many cases, offers have been rejected on the basis that they failed to include boarding pay or adequately compensate ground time. Now that Air Canada has broken from precedent, it is difficult to see how other major carriers will avoid this issue in future rounds of bargaining.

There is, of course, an economic dimension. North American airlines have historically resisted boarding pay because of its impact on labour costs. It’s estimated that adding boarding pay could increase crew wage bills by 10 to 15% across a network, depending on aircraft utilisation and fleet composition. For a major US carrier, this could translate into several billion dollars in additional expenditure over a five-year period.

But the argument that boarding pay is unaffordable is becoming harder to defend in an industry where wage growth for pilots, management bonuses, and shareholder dividends have all increased in recent years. Furthermore, the cost of crew attrition, training, and the operational disruptions caused by discontented staff can easily offset the supposed savings from not paying boarding time.

Globally, the North American model is something of an outlier. In much of Europe, crew contracts compensate all duty hours, including boarding and ground time, from check-in to check-out. In Asia-Pacific, the model varies by country but is generally more holistic in its definition of paid hours. Many Gulf carriers pay flat monthly salaries that include all duty, or a combination of base pay and per-sector allowances, without carving out unpaid gaps between report time and flight time.

This disparity creates a competitive imbalance, particularly for North American carriers operating internationally. Cabin crew flying long-haul services are expected to deliver the same safety and service standards as their global peers, yet under working conditions that often exclude compensation for significant portions of their shift. The introduction of boarding pay in Canada is a move toward closing that gap.

Airlines will likely argue that introducing boarding pay could force cost-cutting elsewhere. That may be true. But the industry is overdue for a reckoning on how crew time is measured, valued, and compensated. As aircraft become larger and routes more complex, asking frontline workers to carry out an increasing volume of duties unpaid is no longer sustainable.

It is also a matter of fairness and accuracy. Cabin crew are safety professionals first, not just service providers. From security checks to passenger briefings, their role starts well before pushback. To only recognise their work once the aircraft leaves the gate is an outdated view of aviation labour that fails to reflect the full value of what crews deliver.

The Air Canada agreement also touches on broader themes that are reshaping labour relations in aviation. Post-pandemic, the industry is grappling with staffing shortages, fatigue, and increased passenger aggression. Cabin crew are often the first point of contact and the last line of defence. Their ability to manage cabin environments safely and calmly is directly linked to how respected and supported they feel in their roles. Pay structures are part of that support.

In addition to boarding pay, the new Air Canada agreement includes wage increases and improved scheduling protections. These elements are also likely to be closely watched by other unions. But it is the boarding pay that carries the most symbolic weight, because it challenges the core structure of aviation compensation in North America. 

The ripple effects will be watched closely by management teams, unions, and regulators across the United States and Canada. This is not just about one airline strike being resolved. It is about what the new agreement represents. It signals a recognition that ground duties are essential, that time on the job is time that should be paid, and that compensation models built around decades-old definitions of work no longer align with today’s operational and passenger realities.

The author is an aviation analyst. X handle: @AlexInAir.