Flights Will Resume in Hours: Air Canada

Air Canada said it plans to resume flights on Sunday after the Canadian government, acting less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, forced the airline and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration. The strike stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season. The country's largest airline said in a release that the first flights will resume Sunday evening but that it will take several days before its operations return to normal, the AP reports. It said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized.

• The government acts: Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said that now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the US has imposed on Canada. The airline said Sunday the Canada Industrial Relations Board has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.
• Cancellations: The shutdown of Canada's largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day. According to numbers from aviation analytics provider Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a total of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon—following 199 on Friday. Another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended.

• The negotiations: Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air. The airline's latest proposal included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said "would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada." The union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation.
• Passengers' options: Travelers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada. The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full "due to the summer travel peak."