Gulf travellers using Air France faced continued disruption as flights from the region were cancelled as pilots began a week-long strike in a dispute over cost cuts by the French flag carrier.
Air France said it had been forced to cancel six out of 10 flights on Monday and predicted the same level of groundings on Tuesday.
According to the Dubai Airports website, Air France flights between Dubai and Paris were cancelled on Monday and again on Tuesday.
Air France pilots intend to strike until Friday over the carrier’s plans to expand the low-cost operations of its Transavia brand by setting up foreign bases, Reuters reported.Â
Their union said they stood ready to prolong the strike as both sides accused the other of causing an impasse in weekend negotiations.
An extended strike could become the airline’s most serious dispute since a 10-day stoppage that disrupted France’s hosting of the World Cup soccer tournament in 1998, union leaders said.
Shares in Franco-Dutch parent Air France-KLM fell more than 3 percent, reversing gains seen last week when the group outlined a new strategic plan focusing on an expansion of low-cost activities across Europe.
In Germany, pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit late on Monday said it had cancelled an eight-hour strike planned for Tuesday at Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa, which would have been the fourth strike to hit the airline within three weeks.
Air France-KLM Chief Executive Alexandre de Juniac said the strike would cost Europe’s second-largest flag carrier €10-15 million ($13-19 million) a day. He said it could have a damaging impact on the group’s finances, but declined to say how quickly that might happen.
So far the strike at Air France-KLM, created from a merger of French and Dutch carriers in 2004, only involves French pilots. But Dutch pilots who fly for KLM warned they could drop their traditionally conservative stand on industrial action.
“The last strike we had was in 1995; we don’t even know how to spell the word ‘strike’,” said Steven Verhagen, president of the Dutch Airline Pilots’ Association.
* with Reuters
