The impact of a four-day strike by French air transport workers, led by pilots, looked set to worsen today.

The strike, which began yesterday, is in protest at a government bill which would oblige every worker in the sector to make a personal declaration of participation in a strike 48 hours before it was due to start, thus allowing airlines to plan a minimum service.

Air France said today it was expecting to operate 50% of long-haul flights (compared with 85% yesterday) and 70% of short and mid-haul flights (75%).

Around 70% of the airline’s cargo is carried in the bellyholds of passenger aircraft and the remainder aboard its freighter fleet.

The SNPL ALPA pilots union, which has majority representation at Air France, estimates that 73% of its members are currently on strike.

“The pool of non-striking pilots at Air France able to cover for striking colleagues has diminished since yesterday,” a spokesperson for the union told IFW.

The strike could not have come at a worse time for the Air France-KLM group, which last month announced cuts to its aircraft fleet and a pay freeze for French staff as part of a three-year plan to turn around its financial woes.

The belt-tightening at Europe’s largest airline by revenue, is the first stage of a restructuring plan to cut its debts by €2 billion to around €4 billion by the end of 2014.

Air France-KLM recorded a 10.3% drop in its cargo traffic last month as a result of linked "the weak economy and the timing of te Chinese New Year”.

A 6% reduction in capacity limited the decline in load factor to 3 percentage points, at 61.4%.

Source : http://www.ifw-net.com