Air Canada says it is at an impasse with its negotiations with the union representing its flight attendants and has announced that it will be pausing all its flights on Saturday morning.

Air Canada said on Thursday it expects to cancel several dozen flights by day’s end and approximately 500 flights by the end of Friday, affecting 100,0000 passengers, in advance of a planned Saturday strike by its unionised flight attendants.

The Air Canada executives were speaking at a news conference that ended abruptly due to protests by union members donning placards.

Mark Nasr, chief operations officer at Air Canada, said the complexity of the carrier’s network, which operates more than 250 aircraft on flights to more than 65 countries, requires it to start winding down service now.

A strike would

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