Strike costs Air France up to 10m euros a day

PARIS — A strike by pilots is costing Air France around 8-10 million euros ($10.6-$13.3 million) per day in operating income, a spokeswoman said yesterday as the industrial action entered its fourth and final day.

The airline said it expected to cancel up to 35 per cent of long-haul flights and up to 25 per cent of shorter flights during the day. Extra costs included compensating passengers, rebookings and notifying thousands of passengers of axed flights this week via email or text message, the spokeswoman said.

The SNPL pilots' union said around half its members were taking part in the action over plans by the government to make strikers in the airline industry give two days' notice before any walkout, rather than no notice.

Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said earlier this week the government was determined to push through the legislation, which would let airlines plan minimum services during a strike rather than waiting until the strike day to find out how many staff were coming to work. The legislation, adopted in the lower house of parliament in January, will be taken up by the Senate in mid-February.

About the same proportion of flights had been cancelled on the third day of the strike on Wednesday. The strike hit services at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, a global aviation hub, as well as several French regional airports. — Reuters