Struggling airline group Air France-KLM said Monday it will stop flying unprofitable routes, reduce capacity on some long-haul flights and review its investment plan for new planes as the company tries to cut costs at a time of slow revenue growth, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The airline, Europe’s largest by traffic, said it would cut routes to Stavanger, Norway; Verona, Italy; Vigo, Spain; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The company added it would reduce the frequency of flights and the size of the aircraft on routes to Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Moscow.
Air France will also retire an Airbus A340 jet earlier than planned and is investigating “various scenarios to postpone the delivery of long-haul aircraft.”
The company has been ravaged by a slow European economy as well as additional competition from low-cost budget airlines on its short-haul flights and from Middle Eastern carriers on its long-haul ones. So Air France is fighting to boost its profitability while still burdened with heavy debt and high costs.
The airline placed some of the blame of the lack of progress on the main pilots union, SNPL France Alpa, for not fulfilling all its obligations to reach the targeted 20% cuts in expenses outlined in a previous labour agreement.
The union didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.
Relations between Air France and its pilot unions have been tense since a plan to cut more jobs and expand the company’s budget brand Transavia led to a two-week pilot strike last September. The strike cost the company 425 million euros, it said earlier this year.