PARIS: Air France expects to operate 41 percent of its flights today as a pilots strike over cost cuts and plans for the company’s budget Transavia unit enters its second week.
The French airline, part of Air France-KLM, also confirmed it planned to operate just 38 percent of services on Sunday, based on 65 percent of pilots taking part in the walkout.
The SNPL pilots union, which has extended the strike until Friday and said it could seek to prolong it further as talks with management stall, has called on French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to intervene to try to resolve the dispute.
“Talks have reached a complete impasse,” the SNPL said in a statement. “Management is playing for time, waiting for the movement to weaken.”
The industrial action began on Monday, and Air France estimates it is costing the company €10m to €15m a day, implying the cost of the walkout could rise to as much as €180m by September 26. Air France-KLM is currently expected to post 2014 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €2.28bn and pre-tax profit of €79m, according to the average of analysts’ estimates on Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The StarMine SmartEstimate is for a full-year pretax loss of €19m. The airline has forecast 2014 EBITDA of €2.2-2.3bn and has not given new forecasts since the strike began. Reuters
