As you board the plane, the flight attendant welcomes you on board. They point you to your seat and help with your luggage, before giving the safety demonstration, and preparing the plane for take-off. And there’s a good chance they’ve done it all for free.
But a tentative deal between Air Canada and thousands of flight attendants has sparked hope more airlines will end a little-known reality for many North American cabin crews – and pay flight attendants when planes are not moving.
“The Air Canada strike helps negotiations everywhere,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)-CWA, which represents about 55,000 flight attendants at 20 different airlines said in a statement. “It defined the problem of ridiculous expectations for flight attendants to work without pay.”
Over 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada walked off the job last month, in a battle with management that centered on pay during boarding and unboarding of flights.
The three-day strike at Canada’s largest carrier snarled global summer travel, prompted the country’s government to force binding arbitration and led to a tentative deal that includes at least 60 minutes of ground pay before each flight, at 50% of a flight attendant’s hourly rate.
The demonstrations by workers, and concessions by Air Canada on pay, “place additional pressure on management everywhere to get real in negotiations”, added Nelson.
Air Canada indicated it will gradually increase the pay of flight attendants for an hour before flights on narrow-body jets, and 70 minutes on larger, wide-body aircraft, reaching 70% of full wage for ground work within four years – dashing flight attendants’ hopes of full compensation for this work, but shifting away from the established practice of no pay until flights are in motion.
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, says the agreement could serve as a foundation for a “new norm” across the continent. “This deal becomes the new standard,” she said, after the deal was agreed, “because … other unionized flight attendants that have the ability to demand better at the bargaining table will be looking at this collective agreement to say, ‘we want that, too’.”
Airline employees in the US are covered under the Railway Labor Act, which doesn’t mandate direct hourly pay, unlike the Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers most other public and private sector workers.
For a generation, flight attendants for most airlines across North America have not been paid for their work during boarding of planes. Delta Air Lines became the first big carrier to change this in 2022, in the midst of a union organizing drive.
Alaska Airlines and American Airlines followed. United Airlines has indicated it stands ready to do so, too, although a tentative agreement was voted down in July, with bargaining under federal mediation set to recommence in December.
Things are changing. “Air Canada and its flight attendants agreed on a formula for ground pay that is over and above what Delta introduced in 2022, and what American and Alaska have agreed since,” said John Gradek, an aviation expert and business professor at McGill University in Montreal.
The deal will probably influence contract negotiations for WestJet flight attendants in 2026 in Canada, added Gradek, and may provide a window for United flight attendants to secure better boarding pay deals, too.
‘Most of our passengers have no idea’
“We’re working more, we’re working harder, and we’re not getting enough pay to make our bills every month,” said Jen Sala, a longtime flight attendant at Frontier Airlines who serves at president of its AFA union. “Flight attendants deserve to be paid for every single hour we work. Airlines shouldn’t be able to pick and choose the hours that they pay their employees.”
Around 4,100 flight attendants at Frontier Airlines voted last September to authorize a strike with 99.6% in favor, as they have been fighting for a new contract since 2023 that includes boarding pay for flight attendants. The union is currently in federal mediation with the airline.
Frontier Airlines did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“We can fly upwards of 15 hours in a day and only get paid for three and a half. Our flight attendants don’t make a living wage,” said Becky Black, a flight attendant for nearly 22 years at PSA Airlines, which operates flights for American Airlines. “We have a flight attendant who lives in a homeless shelter. We have flight attendants that are living in crew rooms. We have flight attendants who are 30 years old and have to move back in with their parents because they can’t afford to live with this job.
“Most of our passengers have no idea that we are only paid from the time the door closes until the door opens.”
Unlike flight attendants directly employed by American, flight attendants working for PSA are not paid until the plane door is closed and the pilot releases the parking brake.
Black, a member of the PSA’s union negotiating committee, is one of 1,500 flight attendants at the airline who have been in negotiations for a new union contract for two years, with negotiations currently under mediation.
Flight attendants at PSA are expected to report 45 minutes prior to a flight, and have to arrive at the airport earlier to get through security screening, Black said. Their pre-boarding procedures, including safety checks and boarding passengers, take at least an additional 30 minutes.
“We’ve been on duty, but we haven’t been getting paid yet. We get paid for the flight time. And when we land and the door opens, we stop getting paid at that point, and we do the deplaning,” Black said. “Our time does have value, and we do deserve to be paid for what we’re doing. And that’s where the boarding pay comes in.”
The union representing flight attendants at the airline authorized a strike with a 99.2 % vote last September, and have held several picket demonstrations since to raise awareness and support for securing boarding pay and wage increases that align with other American flight attendants in their union contract, as PSA flight attendants are paid 40 to 45% less than flight attendants directly at American.
“We’re there to hold your hand when you’re afraid of flying, to talk to you or hold your hand when you’re traveling to a funeral for a loved one, to save your life if you’re having a heart attack in the middle of a flight, or to put out a fire,” said Black. “We’re there to evacuate the airplane in 90 seconds to make sure that you all get off safe and get to your family. And we’re not asking for much. We’re just asking for respect, to be respected for the job that we do for American Airlines, and to have a livable wage.”
American Airlines did not respond to multiple requests for comment. PSA Airlines did not comment on the boarding pay issue. “We share the same goal as our flight attendants to get a deal done,” said a spokesperson. “With the support of the National Mediation Board, we continue to meet regularly with the AFA and have made progress toward reaching an agreement that our flight attendants deserve.”