Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Updated from article originally published on September 15


Air France pilots on Saturday voted to continue striking until at least Friday, extending by another five days a walkout that has forced the airline to cancel more than half its flights over the past week. The point of contention centers on Air France’s stated plans to shift more capacity to its low-fare Transavia subsidiary, whose pilots work for significantly less pay than those of the main airline. The French pilot group demands compensation parity among flight crew for both airlines, something until now management has flatly rejected.


The start of the strike came just three days after Air France-KLM announced its latest “strategic plan” to return the company to financial health. The plan involves several initiatives, including, perhaps most controversially, a renewed emphasis on the European leisure traffic market via Transavia. Dubbed Perform 2020, the plan succeeds Transform 2015, the company’s ongoing productivity effort designed to cut costs by €1 billion.


Now based on two existing companies, Transavia France and Transavia Netherlands, the planned accelerated development of Air France-KLM in the European leisure market would hinge on the creation of several new bases in other European countries. The resulting pan-European operation would require some 100 aircraft and carry more than 20 million passengers annually by 2017. Considering the effects of “ramp-up” costs, the group expects Transavia to turn a profit by the following year. The group estimates the business should contribute an additional €100 million of earnings before interest, text, depreciation, amortization and restructuring charges (EBITDAR) in 2017.


Other points of focus center on growth of the group’s passenger hub business, the creation of a single business unit to further “optimize” point-to-point operations, completion of a cargo repositioning exercise, expansion of its maintenance business and an ongoing drive for productivity and financial discipline.


Medium-term financial targets include a rise in EBITDAR of 8 percent to 10 percent annually until 2017, and adjusted net debt/EBITDAR ratio of below 2.5 starting in 2017.


“Transform 2015 will be completed by the year end having fully delivered on its objective of significantly improving the Group’s competitiveness and delivering a €1 billion-plus reduction in costs,” said Air France-KLM chairman and CEO Alexandre de Juniac in a written statement. “Perform 2020...will be supported by two main levers: growth, which we are looking to capture in a number of areas, and competitiveness combined with financial discipline which should continue to ensure firm foundations for the development of Air France-KLM.”


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Air France Pilots Extend Strike, Disruptions Continue 

Airline forced to cancel more than half of its flights.

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