Rabat – France’s national carrier Air France warned customers planning to travel on Saturday, April 7, of possible flight delays or cancellations due to another staff strike over pay involving pilots, cabin crew and ground staff.
“Due to the confirmation of the strike for Saturday April 7, our flight schedule for this day will be disrupted,” the company said in a statement.
The airline’s management said that some 30 percent of total Air France flights will be cancelled on this day, while it will maintain 75 percent of its long-haul flights, 65 percent of its medium-haul flights in and out of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and 70 percent of short-haul flights going to and from the capital’s Orly airport.
Some flights departing from or going ahead of Morocco are among the cancellations. The flights Paris-Casablanca (AF1597) and (AF1596) as well as flight Paris-Rabat (AF1358) have been cancelled.
The French airline forecasts other disruptions as six other strike days will occur this month, recording the highest cancellation rate since the start of a series of one-day strikes in February.
“A call for strike has been issued by several Air France staff unions for Saturday 7, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 April 2018,” the statement adds.
This Saturday marks the fifth day of strike, initiated by worker unions who demanded a 6 percent pay rise, which the airline has refused to meet, saying that it cannot offer more than a 1 percent pay rise to staff.
“We can’t give out money that we don’t have,” Air France CEO, Jean-Marc Janaillac told RTL radio on Friday, April 6.
“I need to ensure Air France has a future, and to go any higher than that would jeopardize the company’s future,” Janaillac said.
French daily La Tribune, reported that each strike day costs the company over EUR 25 million, adding that flights disruption will likely dissuade customers to book flights with the company during the upcoming lucrative summer holiday season.
