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The union will also be releasing polling later today showing a majority of Canadians support the flight attendants and want the federal government to back off — even if it means travel disruptions.

Pouliot said the airline has not responded to CUPE’s last offer made on Tuesday and “seem intent on job action, not bargaining.”

The company started cancelling Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights Thursday night and expected to cancel 500 flights Friday affecting 100,000 travellers.

In a press conference Thursday, Mark Nasr, executive V-P and COO of Air Canada, said the cancellations will affect 130,000 customers a day, including 25,000 Canadians who may be stranded abroad and that all flights would be paused by early Saturday.

Air Canada is “simply not the kind of system that we can start or stop at the push of a button,” Nasr said. “So in order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin now.”

First cancellations were mostly long-haul international flights scheduled to depart Thursday night, Nasr said, before expanding to hit more than 100,000 travellers Friday, and culminating in a full shutdown at 1 a.m. Saturday.

“We’re cancelling on a daily basis (after Saturday) because obviously we’re working on trying to resolve the labour dispute,” said Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, the airline’s chief human resources officer. So every morning, at 8 a.m., the flights for the next day get cancelled.”

More to come...

With files from Estella Ren