Air Canada and its flight attendants union continued talks on Sunday ahead of a looming strike deadline set for Wednesday.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, the union representing Air Canada's 6,800 flight attendants, said the airline presented a counter-offer to a proposal CUPE made Saturday.

CUPE said on Saturday that the airline's bargaining position continued to be "unacceptable."

Flight attendants voted overwhelmingly to give CUPE a strike mandate less than a month after they rejected a previous tentative agreement.

Air Canada said that in the event of a strike it would still operate a partial schedule, but the airline is saying there's still plenty of time to reach an agreement.

The deadline to strike is Wednesday morning.

Robert Kokonis, co-founder of airline consulting firm AirTrav Inc., said that he is "cautiously optimistic" a settlement will be reached before then. And if workers do walk off the job, he expects the strike would be short-lived.

"I can't imagine it lasting more than three days," Kokonis told CTV News Channel on Sunday, adding that the carrier's strike in June was ended with back-to-work legislation after just three days.

Most analysts expect the Harper government would move quickly to order an end to a strike that could threaten the country's weakened economic recovery.

Kokonis said travellers should be aware of a possible strike but there are other options including international carriers and other regional operators, such as Jazz.

"Business travellers, they're the ones who have the corporate travel agents and budgets, they can shift things around," he said. "But as far as leisure travellers, who've been saving for that vacation for one or two or three years now, they're the folks who will have a more difficult time."

Jazz will continue to operate regional connector service for Air Canada since its flight attendants operate under a separate contract.

Air Canada and its regional partners carry about 31 million passengers annually to more than 170 destinations on five continents.

With files from The Canadian Press