Less than 12 hours after it began, the federal government ordered Air Canada and its flight attendants into binding arbitration on Saturday, putting an abrupt end to the strike and lockout situation that left airplanes grounded and thousands of Canadians struggling to find alternate ways home.

The union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants with Air Canada announced its members were walking off the job after it was unable to reach an eleventh-hour deal with the airline. The strike officially began just before 1 a.m. ET on Saturday and in turn, Air Canada locked out its agents about 30 minutes later due to the strike action.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu announced just after noon that she had reluctantly intervened, ordering binding arbitration and for operations at the airline to r

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