Reportedly the French flag carrier, part of Franco-Dutch group air France-KLM, said it had lost 15 million 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 plane maker Airbus (AIR.PA). 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 labor reorganization is one where there are no forced departures," junior economy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Sud Radio on Friday. In its statement, air france said it would give priority to voluntary departures, early retirement and staff mobility. It did not rule out compulsory redundancies, however. 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.
