This picture taken yesterday shows the deserted Air France check-in area at Orly’s airport, near Paris.

Reuters/AFP/Paris

 

Talks between Air France and its pilots reached an impasse yesterday after a union request for a mediator was rejected by both the airline’s management and the French government.

Air France has been locked in negotiations with pilots over plans to create a low-cost operation, resulting in a 13-day strike which has cost it up to €20mn ($25mn) a day.

The company said yesterday that it would only be able to operate 45% of its flights today, fewer even than yesterday, as more than half of its pilots would be on strike.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Air France rejected pilot unions’ demands.

“Management does not think that the appointment of a mediator is necessary,” Eric Schramm, co-head of operations at Air France, told BFM TV yesterday.

The pilot union SNPL had said, in what it called a “gesture of appeasement”, on Friday that it stood ready to lift the strike as soon as a mediator was appointed.

The protracted strike, and fruitless negotiations, have also prompted anger among aviation staff grounded alongside their planes, around 200 of whom protested against the stoppage on Friday.

A concession from management to scrap plans to expand Transavia further into Europe was “necessary... but not enough” to stop the strike, SNPL spokesman Guillaume Schmid said on Friday.

Schmid later called on the government to name an “independent mediator as quickly as possible”.

He blasted Air France-KLM chief executive Alexandre de Juniac for “his inability to carry out a respectful dialogue” with the unions.

The pilots are fighting for a “single contract” across Air France-KLM’s subsidiaries to avoid being forced to accept less attractive working conditions at Transavia.

Transavia currently serves holiday destinations across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Air France pilots, who earn up to €250,000 a year, fear some flights will be replaced with services operated by Transavia.

They fear they will end up earning less and having shorter recovery times between flights.

A Transavia captain earns up to €160,000 a year, although co-pilots on both airlines will earn roughly the same amount as each other at the beginning of their careers, according to sources.

While Air France management agreed to scrap the development of Transavia abroad, it has vowed to maintain at least some part of its plans to enter the low-cost market, a key “growth opportunity”, according to de Juniac.

The Air France-KLM board of directors has thrown its support behind management.

The withdrawal of plans to expand Transavia will come as a blow to the airline’s efforts to be more competitive in the crowded and changing European skies, increasingly dominated by no-frills operators such as Irish airline Ryanair.

France’s MEDEF employers’ association said Thursday the conflict at Air France – which is 16% state-owned – encapsulated the malaise gripping the country’s crisis-hit economy.

The union action is “again dragging a company into the red”, said MEDEF vice-president Jean-Francois Pillard. “For those who want to invest or travel in France, this does not contribute, at an already extremely difficult time, to improving the image of the country,” he said.

Air France has already implemented an ambitious restructuring plan to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

“Low-cost airlines now represent between 25% and 45% of air traffic in Europe, depending on the country,” said Didier Brechemier, an aviation expert at consultants Roland Berger.

Ryanair will soon expand its fleet to 400, which would take it above Air France’s 350 aircraft.

“With competitors like that it’s not hard to see why Ryanair is the fastest-growing airline in Europe,” company boss Michael O’Leary said dismissively of Air France’s offer to put its expansion plans on ice.

French prime minister Valls put pressure on the pilots on Friday, calling for them to accept the deal put forward by the airline to end the conflict.

“This strike must end,” Valls said. “This strike is intolerable for customers, this strike is intolerable for the company, Air France, this strike is intolerable for the country’s economy.”