"We are in a situation where literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are being disrupted by this action," Prime Minister Mark Carney said.

An ongoing labor dispute between Air Canada and its 10,000 flight attendants is wreaking havoc for half a million travelers and counting.

“We will not be returning to the skies,” said Mark Hancock, national president for Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, which also represents some non-public sectors.