Air Canada's flight attendants went on strike Saturday, as the airline announced a complete shutdown of operations, creating summer travel chaos for its 130,000 daily passengers. Its full 700-flight daily schedule has been scrapped for Saturday.

Air Canada has canceled hundreds of flights — many of them international flights — as a potential strike by flight attendants looms.

Mark Nasr, Air Canada's chief operations officer, said that cancellations would go from "several dozens" on Thursday, to some 500 by the end of Friday, to the airline being "completely grounded" at the start of the strike on Saturday, in the absence of a resolution.