Air France, the French airline, will close 2014 with a halved loss in the domestic medium-haul sector. Said the managing director, Frederic Gagey, in an interview with "Le Figaro".
“This year – he explained – we expect that the loss in the domestic medium range will be halved compared to 2012, it should be in the order of 120 million euro”. The Air France-KLM group, which has been undergoing restructuring since January 2012, will present on 11 September the new industrial plan, "Perform 2020", the guidelines of which were presented in July.
To get the short- and medium-haul network back on track, the plan is to redistribute the lines now served by Air France to the regional affiliate Hop! and develop the group's low-cost subsidiary, Transavia, on European routes. Snpl, the first union of Air France pilots, has proclaimed a week of strike starting from 15 September against the new plan.
"Behind Snpl's claims is the question of the development of Transavia, the low-cost airline of the Air France group - said Gagey - The development of Transavia is not an outsourcing and is not done at the expense of Air's medium range France". The "Perform 2020" plan follows "Transform 2015" which from 2012 to 2015 cut more than 8.000 jobs, 10% of the airline's workforce.
