France’s flag carrier Air France recently confirmed plans to cut about 7,500 jobs including 1,000 at its sister airline HOP!, amid protests from staff over its response to the collapse in travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The French airline, part of Franco-Dutch group Air France-KLM, said it had lost 15mn euros a day during the worst part of the crisis, which also saw its revenues plunge by 95%. It did not see traffic returning to 2019 levels before 2024.
As a result, it plans to cut 6,560 or 16% of jobs at the main airline by the end of 2022, more than 3,500 of which will come through natural departures, it said after union talks.
Another 1,020 jobs will go over the next three years at “HOP!”, representing 42% of staff at the regional carrier based in the coastal city of Nantes, which has also been hit by job cuts at planemaker Airbus.
The French government – which granted Air France 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in aid, including state-backed loans, to help it to survive – has urged the airline to avoid compulsory layoffs, though it has conceded Air France is “on the edge.”
“A successful labour reorganisation is one where there are no forced departures,” junior economy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Sud Radio.
In its statement, Air France said it would give priority to voluntary departures, early retirement and staff mobility. However, it did not rule out compulsory redundancies.
The reconstruction plan will be presented at the end of July, together with a plan for the wider Air France-KLM Group.
Some 100 union members and employees, from cleaning staff to check-in assistants, demonstrated earlier outside the airline’s base at Charles de Gaulle airport against plans to cut staff after receiving state aid to absorb the pandemic fallout.
In Nantes, where HOP! is based, employees also erected banners in protest.
The shake-up was expected after sources familiar with the matter said that at least half of the cuts were likely to entail voluntary departures and retirement plans.
The government, which is being reshuffled under a new prime minister nominated on Friday, has also expressed concerns about Airbus’s (AIR.PA) plans to cut some 15,000 jobs across Europe – with a third of those in France.
A wave of restructuring triggered by the virus outbreak is hitting airlines and industrial firms across Europe.
Under CEO Ben Smith, who joined from Air Canada in 2018, Air France-KLM has sought to cut costs, improve French labour relations and overcome governance squabbles between France and the Netherlands, each owners of close to 14% of the group.
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