TravelPulse Canada sat down with Lisa Pierce, vice president of Global Sales for Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations, to chat about the disruptions caused by the recent labour dispute with its flight attendants, and how the airline is rebuilding trust as it restarts operations.
The interview starts with good news: Air Canada is quickly ramping up service. Today (Aug. 21, 2025) the airline anticipates 95 percent of its flights will be operating as scheduled, up to 99 percent tomorrow. “There’s a lot of work that goes into that: getting our crew in the right place, getting our aircraft in the right place, making sure all the aircraft have all the maintenance activities taken care of,” says Pierce. “So it is quite incredible how fast we’re able to do that.”
A dashboard has been added to the Air Canada website, showcasing what percentage of flights are operating, broken down by domestic, transborder and international routes, plus customer numbers and insights data and FAQs.
Getting Back on Track: Refunds and Rebookings
“Although we are operating with a full schedule, now it’s a matter of making sure all of our customers are booked on flights that they need, to get where they’re going,” says Pierce.
To that end, Air Canada has implemented a “goodwill policy” with flexible rebooking and refunds, including on tickets booked through travel advisors.
“I know there’s been some confusion about how it works for travel agencies. It is applicable to every single booking channel, no matter how a customer booked, they are part of that program,” emphasises Pierce.
The Air Canada agent portal is a resource hub for all the information pertinent for advisors. She notes it is very important to clear your cache by clearing your browsing history and cookies to ensure you get the most up to date information from Air Canada. The airline is continually updating its sites and if you aren’t clearing the cache, you may still be seeing older, obsolete information.
Air Canada’s Flash newsletter is another important communications channel travel advisors can take advantage of, not just the agencies, but independent counsellors as well — a growing segment of the industry that Pierce wants to establish strong communication with. Sign up for the newsletter here.
First and foremost, thank you
Pierce sees travel advisors from agencies and independents as an extension of the sales team, working together to serve customers. “We need to make sure that they’re inspired to travel again and that they have the information they need.”
When asked what Air Canada wants to share most with advisors right now, Pierce says, “I want to tell all advisors thank you, because we know it’s been a very difficult five days, for everyone one, especially for them — who are amazing, finding creative solutions to get our customers where they need to go,” she says. “So first and foremost, we want to show appreciation to them, not only for all the work they do, but for their expertise, because they are experts in their fields, and that’s very important. “
As travel resumes, the entire Air Canada team is mobilizing to get passengers back on track. Pierce encourages advisors to reach out to the sales team for help if they need it. “We’re here for them,” she says.
Looking to what’s ahead, Pierce says there are learnings to be incorporated, some of them based on input from the travel advisor community. “I think together, we’ve learned a lot over the last few days,” she says. “The feedback that we get from the agent community is appreciated, and it does make a difference, and we are using it to help inform policies for how we normally handle disruptions.
“[Disruptions are a] normal part of the industry, but the scale and the pace that we went through in the last few days is unprecedented, and we were taking that feedback in a timely manner. Because of the feedback we received, it made us better.”
Related: Air Canada Strike Ends, Airline Reaches Deal With Flight Attendants
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