Air Canada says it will start cancelling flights on Thursday, even if the strike can’t begin until the weekend, a move which comes after the union issued a 72-hour strike notice in the early hours of Wednesday.

Following the strike notice, Air Canada issued a lockout notice stating its plans to lock out the flight attendants for early Saturday, as the work stoppage would officially take effect around 1 a.m. ET if the two sides don’t reach a deal.

This means that all flights by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge will be grounded by the weekend, in what the airline calls an orderly shutdown. Air Canada Express flights will continue to operate as normal, since they are operated by Jazz and PAL, meaning their flight attendants are not part of the negotiations.

At both YQR and YXE, all daily Air Canada flights to Toronto face cancellatio

n, and Air Canada Jazz flights to Vancouver and Montreal will continue to operate.

Travellers at Regina’s airport on Wednesday spoke on the uncertainty that an Air Canada flight home will be available for them.

“I don’t know, I guess we’ll see and if not, we’ll have to change things up, but this was kind of last minute and we booked this trip like three months ago,” Lorenzo Celis expressed.

Fellow Air Canada passenger Roman Lakdawala shared similar concerns.

“So far, our flight is on time, but it certainly brings up concern coming back with the strike and everything but for now it all looks good and hopefully fingers crossed we all get back soon,” he said.

Customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and will be eligible for a full refund or will be able to rebook at no additional cost.

Regina Airport Authority CEO James Bogusz provided some guidance to those passengers who would be affected by cancelled flights.

“Calling the airline would be incredibly challenging given I’m sure what will be a very high volume of calls,” he said. “Generally, if you provided your email address or mobile phone number, Air Canada will proactively reach out to you like they would a delay or a cancellation to let you know what your options are.”

The Saskatchewan government is concerned about the impact of the lock out.

In a written statement it said, “Any stoppage in air services is unfortunate and we hope that the labour dispute gets resolved as soon as possible.”

There is a possibility that some flights may be cancelled before the lock out begins as Air Canada winds down operations.