Air France pilots on strike

Air France pilots will be on strike for an entire week

Air France will have to reconsider pilots’ demands as they went on strike earlier today.

For the following 7 days, more than half of the airline’s flights will be cancelled as the pilots unite to protest against the carrier’s decision to transfer jobs to a low-cost carrier.

Air France has announced this event and is demanding that clients postpone their flights until the strike ends.

The protest follows the announcement made by Air France last week, which stated that they will be transferring most of it European portfolio to Transavia, a low-cost carrier. The measure aims to keep-up with the competition for European inbound flights.

This strike alone is estimated to cost Air France a staggering 10 million pounds a day.

However, the airline is ready to negotiate benefits for pilots who are willing to work for Transavia.

The issue is related to the fact that they would not agree that pilots have the same contracts when working with Transavia as they did for Air France. This is viewed as unjust by the pilot union.

The current changes for the carrier are part of its long term strategy called Perform 2020 which is design to improve its adaptability to the air-transport market.

Among these strategies there is a need for having a stake in the low-cost sector inside Europe via Transavia.

This key move is in fact an Air France-KLM collaboration in Europe in order to enter the leisure market. New bases for the Transavia brand will be created in European locations in the following period along with the expansion.

The goal is to rank Transavia by 2017 as one of the leading air-carriers in the low cost department, benefiting from 100 aircrafts and expecting a flow of 20 million passengers.