An estimated 200 pilots protested in Paris today in a dispute over the company’s plan to expand its low cost business.
Dressed in full uniform, the pilots gathered outside the National Assembly in Paris.
Pilots are in the second week of a strike that is scheduled to last until Friday, but could be extended.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned today that the strike is creating “real danger” for the airline.
“There is no
reason for this strike…. It is jeopardising the image of France and
represents a real danger for Air France,” the Prime Minister told Europe
1 radio.
“This strike
must stop. Management has made a number of proposals and it seems to me
the conditions are in place for the positions of either side to come
together,” he said.
Earlier this
month, Air France announced a plan to more than double the number of
passengers carried on its budget airline Transavia by 2017, and expand
its operations outside France.
In hubs
outside France pilots are hired under local employment terms, which can
be less generous than at core Air France operations.
Not acceptable
Pilot Alan
Magi, who was at the protest said: “The number of people working for Air
France is decreasing every year and there is no point building another
company outside of France.
“This will not only cost pilot jobs in Air France … that will kill Air France. We can’t accept this.”
On Monday
Air France offered to freeze plans to expand Transavia, but the pilots’
union SNPL rejected that describing the move as a “smokescreen”.
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