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

Flight attendants are demanding better wages and compensation for unpaid work. Currently, Air Canada only compensates flight attendants for the time they are in the air, but its attendants are seeking pay for the work they do before take-off and after landing, too.

Air Canada began canceling flights Thursday ahead of a possible strike by its flight attendants that could impact hundreds of thousands of travelers. A complete shutdown of the country's largest airline threatens to impact about 130,000 people a day.