Air Canada said it will resume flights Sunday evening after the Canadian government ordered striking flight attendants back to work and sent the contract dispute to arbitration.
The walkout, which began early Saturday, stranded more than 100,000 passengers worldwide at the height of the summer travel season. The airline warned it will take several days for operations to stabilize, with some cancellations expected over the next week.
Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu intervened less than 12 hours after the strike began, citing risks to the economy and pointing to the strain of recent US tariffs on Canada. Hajdu directed the 10,000 flight attendants to return to work and referred the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The board extended the airline’s existing collective agreement until an arbitrator sets new terms.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Air Canada canceled 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, after suspending 199 on Friday. Another 96 scheduled for Sunday were also grounded.
The strike followed a breakdown in talks between the airline and the flight attendants’ union, which had rejected Air Canada’s earlier request for government-directed arbitration. Workers walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT Saturday, while the airline simultaneously moved to lock them out of airports.