A complete shutdown of Air Canada is imminent, threatening to ground the country’s dominant air carrier if an agreement is not reached by early Saturday between the airline and the union representing its flight attendants. More than 10,000 flight attendants are set to strike around 1 a.m. EST on Saturday, which would be followed by a company-imposed lockout, potentially affecting approximately 130,000 passengers daily.
The widespread industrial action could also leave some 25,000 Canadians abroad stranded. In anticipation of the disruption, Air Canada announced it expects to cancel 500 flights by the end of Friday, having already begun cancellations on Thursday. By Friday lunchtime, 87 domestic and 176 international flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday had been called off, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. On Thursday, when the airline initiated a "phased wind down" of most operations, 18 domestic and four international flights were cancelled.
