The federal government’s announcement to privatize four airports across Canada will place the burden on air travellers and airport workers.  

Private investors are not interested in running airports for the public good or for the benefit of travellers – they are interested in profit. At a time when Canada needs to be the strongest it can be, handing critical public infrastructure to private corporations is not in the public’s best interest.  

PSAC represents thousands of airport workers across Canada, including many workers represented by the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees (UCTE) that may be impacted by this announcement. We have yet to hear from the government on how these workers and their jobs could be impacted. 

Several of these units are currently in bargaining, which means that the announcement to privatize these airports could disrupt their ongoing collective bargaining process. 

Both the CCPA and CLC released reports on how air travellers in Canada will take on these costs. Privatizing airports is a good deal for private companies and a bad deal for travellers and workers.  

A push to cut costs and increase profits also leads to a decrease in the quality of airports and fewer resources towards safety regulations. Fewer staff, wage cuts, or decreases in benefits put air traveller safety at risk. 

Privatizing airports means that air travellers will face higher fees beyond their ticket prices, too; increased fees for parking and ground transportation, retail prices, and food prices, and decreased quality to make up additional cost savings for the government. 

PSAC has raised the alarm on the potential impacts of privatization of airports for years, most recently with the government’s inclusion of airport privatization language in the 2026 spring economic statement. 

PSAC calls on the government to invest in the public services that keep our country safe and strong, and to commit to protecting the unionized jobs of these workers.