WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech and President Diederik Pen issued statements from the airline's Calgary headquarters on Saturday morning, condemning a sudden and "absurd" strike by the union maintaining the company's planes on Friday.

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) announced its members started to strike at around 5:30 p.m. (MT) on Friday in response to the airline’s “unwillingness to negotiate with the union made the strike inevitable.”

The result? At least 235 flight cancellations on Saturday morning, impacting roughly 33,000 WestJet customers. This is something von Hoensbroech and Pen said could get worse if no solution is met by the "early afternoon," meaning at least another 150 flights could be cancelled.

The strike comes after the Canadian federal government issued a ministerial order for binding arbitration on Thursday. The order also followed two weeks of turbulent discussions with the union on a new deal.

"The CIRB [Canada Industrial Relations Board] and AMFA, who has gone on strike, have actually not followed what minister [Travel Minister Seamus O'Regan Jr.] wanted, which is industrial peace. And the resolution of this on an arbitrator basis. So, we are now faced with a situation that makes it extremely difficult for our guests, and that we only throw in difficulties and the magnitude as we progress through time," von Hoensbroech said.

"I will be taking additional steps to protect the interests of the employer, the union and all Canadians travelling over this national holiday weekend," O'Regan wrote in a post to X on Saturday morning.

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