OTTAWA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The Canadian government will

not intervene to end a dispute between Air Canada ( ACDVF ) and its pilots

and intends instead to pressure both sides to avert a strike,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

A stoppage could start as soon as Sept. 18. Air Canada ( ACDVF ) and

its low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge together operate nearly

670 flights per day, and a shutdown could affect 110,000

passengers daily as well as freight carriage.

Airline and business groups want the Liberal government

to force the two sides into binding arbitration before a strike

starts, an idea that Trudeau dismissed.

"I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale on either

side. It is up to Air Canada ( ACDVF ) and the pilots' union to do the

work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting

millions of Canadians," he told reporters in Quebec.

"Every time there's a strike, people say 'Oh, you'll get

the government to come in and fix it' - we're not going to do

that. We believe in collective bargaining, and we're going to

keep pushing people to do it."

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon met both the company

and the union on Thursday. Both sides are still far apart on the

question of wages.