The French government has called for an end to the Air France pilots’ strike, which has grounded more than half of flights and cost the airline millions of euros this week, saying that it was damaging the image of the country, reports The Financial Times.
Manuel Valls, the prime minister, said on France Inter radio that the strike was “weighing heavily on Air France, as well as on its finances, and on the attractiveness and the image of our country”.
“No one understands what this strike is about,” he added.
The French pilots union organised a week-long strike that has already grounded thousands of flights, demanding that employees at Air France-KLM’s low-cost Transavia division are paid the same as regular Air France pilots.
It comes as Air France is attempting to expand its low-cost services in response to pressure from budget carriers led by easyJet on European short-haul routes. This has prompted union fears that these services will end up cannibalising Air France’s short-haul flights.
Emmanuel Macron, the former investment banker who replaced leftwing firebrand Arnaud Montebourg as budget minister, also called for an end to the strikes, saying “we cannot accept that a country gets blocked because of just a few”.
The comments came after France’s socialist government narrowly defeated a vote of no-confidence in the French parliament on Tuesday. The government survived a rebellion by leftwing parliamentarians over a more pro-business stance being adopted by ministers.
Frédéric Gagey, Air France chief executive, on Wednesday told Europe 1 radio that management are negotiating with the unions and have “heard the concerns of pilots who imagined that Transavia France could suddenly replace all of Air France across France”.
Air France said it expected to operate “at least 40 per cent of its flights” on Wednesday, based on three-fifths of pilots walking out, and the airline has sent out hundreds of thousands of text messages to passengers with warnings about cancelled services.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.