Air France pilots to strike over Transavia, restructuring

In protest against new reorganization plans from AirFrance-KLM, the French airline's pilots are threatening a strike lasting one week between the 15th and the 22nd of September in Paris. This would be the biggest pilots' strike since 1998, De Telegraaf reports. During a press conference Sunday, AirFrance announced that there is a possibility that 60 percent of flights on Monday will have to be canceled due to the strike. Passengers have been advised to make arrangements to postpone flights where possible, and can change tickets for free. AirFrance expects to lose between €10 and €15 million per day. Pilots are worried about AirFrance-KLM's plans for daughter company Transavia to keep in market competition with budget airlines such as RyanAir and EasyJet. AirFrance labor unions demand that pilots transferring to Transavia receive the same terms of employment as those working for AirFrance. The airline has said that ti tis open to negotiations. Among the points up for discussion are more benefits linked to seniority. AirFrance has, however, said that they are not prepared to make Transavia terms of employment equal entirely to those of AirFrance. KLM announced Saturday that it will not suffer from the strikes.