130K travelers impacted daily by Air Canada flight cancellations, strike

(NewsNation) — All Air Canada flights have been canceled due to an employee strike, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers having to change their travel plans. 

Around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants and cabin crew went on strike Saturday around 1 a.m. ET at major Canadian airports to demand better pay after the union representing the employees didn’t reach an agreement with the airline. 

With routes to over 60 countries, Air Canada is a popular airline for American travelers with connecting flights across the United States border and to Europe and Asia. In the U.S., Air Canada operates hundreds of daily flights from more than 50 airports.

The airline said 130,000 travelers will be impacted each day the strike continues.

“Air Canada is strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed ticket on an airline other than Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge,” the airline wrote in a news release. “Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional cancelled flights and their options. For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet cancelled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel.”

This is the first strike for cabin crew with Air Canada since 1985.

Air Canada started canceling flights on Thursday ahead of a possible work stoppage. It also warned earlier in the week that once the strike went into effect, it could take the airline about a week to resume flights.