Air France SA will cut almost half of its European flights and more than a third of long-haul services as pilots began a four-day strike to press pay demands.
Pilots are asking for a 10 percent pay increase on top of 7.3 percent they've already received within the past year, Air France said. The pilots have received a 4 percent raise and a change in the remuneration system equivalent to another 3.3 percent, Air France said. The pilots' union, SNPL, refused to comment.
"Such demands are unrealistic," Air France Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta said in an interview with radio RTL.
Europe's second-largest airline won labor peace in 1998 after a nine-day work stoppage, when pilots accepted a wage freeze and a no-strike accord in return for equity when Air France sold shares to the public in 1999. Pilots now own 9 percent of the airline.
The carrier planned to scrap 38 percent of long-haul flights, 48 percent of European flights and 25 percent of domestic flights yesterday, spokeswoman Veronique Brachet said. Air France is ready to go back to the negotiating table "very soon," she said.
"My door is open and the unions know what the company's constraints are and what we can offer," Spinetta said on RTL.
Spinetta said he aims to reach a labor agreement for the next four to five years with pilots.
The French airline is 54 percent owned by the government.
France's finance minister said recently that the country will try to reduce its stake to below 20 percent by selling additional shares to investors by the end of this year or early next year if market conditions allow.
Salaries at Air France are 6 percent higher than the average levels of British Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV, according to the French company.
The airline reported in August that sales for the fiscal first quarter fell 1.7 percent to 3.32 billion euros (US$3.3 billion). The airline lost 30 million euros in sales when a one-day strike by air traffic controllers in June forced it to cancel nine of 10 European and domestic flights, plus 10 percent of long-haul services.
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