Concerns at KLM over new Air France subsidiary Joon

The KLM central works council has concerns about new agreements made on Air France's new budget airline Joon in Paris last week. "We're looking at it with suspicion", Jan-Willem van Dijk, chairman of the KLM works council, said to broadcaster NOS. The council fears that the new agreements are not in the interest of the Dutch branch of Air France-KLM.

Air France wants Joon to spread the so-called production balance between Air France and KLM more evenly. Over the past years KLM performed much better than Air France and the CEO of the airline feels that this is an "unhealthy situation", according to NOS. Joon must also compete with airlines from the Middle East.

The KLM central works council has doubts whether Joon will be successful. "If Joon does not succeed, the pilots don't have to give up money. In fact, they would get more money, I heard in Paris this week. Then AF-KLM as a whole becomes even more expensive, and we'll be even further from home", Van Dijk said to the broadcaster.

The central works council is also skeptical about about the Air France-KLM union as a whole. A confidential report that leaked last week showed that cooperation between the two companies is difficult and filled with mistrust. "It's very bad yes", Van Dijk confirmed to NOS. "When we combined 13 years ago, we were the second airline group in the world. We now dropped to spot eight and the competition is so intense, we'll only decline further."

Van Dijk thinks that Air France-KLM should rather continue in a "kind of latent relationship". "Do together what we can and run solo for the rest."