Fewer passengers for Air France-KLM due to strikes

In April airline Air France-KLM transported fewer passengers than in the same month last year, due to strikes at Air France. The French-Dutch airline transported 6.9 million passengers in April, 2.5 percent less than the over 7 million passengers transported in April 2017, RTL Nieuws reports.

At KLM the number of passengers increased by over 5 percent. But that was not enough to compensate for the nearly 9 percent decrease at Air France.

Air France is losing between 25 million and 30 million euros for every day its employees are on strike. Air France employees are striking for higher wages. Since this labor conflict started in February, part of the Air France staff was striking on a total of 15 days. The damage to the airline amounts to at least 375 million euros so far, according to RTL. This wage conflict resulted in the resignation of Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac.

The problems at Air France also has the attention of politicians. Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure discussed the matter with her French colleague Elisabeth Borne, but the discussion went no further than raising concerns. Earlier this week Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance said that the Dutch government will not intervene in this matter. Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge also said that the solution to this issue must come from the company itself.