PARIS: French flag carrier Air France yesterday offered to freeze the expansion of its low-cost operation in a bid to end the longest strike at the airline since 1998.
As the strike entered its second week, management said it would halt the development of its leisure subsidiary Transavia until December, unions said, raising hopes of an end to the crisis.
Air France Chief Executive Alexandre de Juniac said it was “the last offer” and was expected to sketch out a “global plan to exit the crisis” at around 1200 GMT.
He offered “to suspend the plan to create Transavia subsidiaries in Europe until the end of the year” in order to have “a deeper dialogue” with pilots, but insisted the overall project could not be called into question.
Union sources said there was a “softening” of tensions but complained that “the company still has a strong ambition to develop Transavia.”
Air France pilots are on strike in protest at the airline’s plans to develop Transavia France, which serves holiday destinations, primarily in the Mediterranean.
They fear the airline will attempt to replace expensive Air France pilots, who can earn up to ¤250,000 ($321,000) in annual salary, with Transavia pilots, who are paid considerably less.
As on previous days, the strike forced the airline to scrap more than half its flights yesterday.
Air France said the strike was costing them “up to ¤20m ($26m) per day” and said it would update its profit forecasts when the strike was over.
“The pilots’ strike has lasted for seven days now with disastrous consequences for customers, employees and the company’s finances,” the airline said in a statement.
The airline operated around 40 percent of its flights on Monday, with nearly seven in 10 pilots walking off the job.
Air France has made concessions before — notably an offer to limit the Transavia fleet to 30 planes compared with 37 originally planned — but to no avail so far.
“This strike is becoming interminable,” said Jean-Claude Delarue, president of a travellers’ federation.
“You have to ask yourself whether Air France will end up losing market share because travellers will end up going elsewhere,” said Delarue.
AFP
