Air France Asks For Time to Talk as Cabin Crew Strike Ends
Seven-day walkout cost airline €90 million

Air France estimates the seven-day strike by cabin crew that ended at midnight on August 2 cost it some €90 million ($101 million). In a statement issued Wednesday, the airline added that the strike resulted in the cancellation of nearly 1,400 flights and affected some 180,000 passengers. Although it said it expects normal service to resume on August 3, it continued to warn of possible last-minute disruptions.


Air France praised the “commitment of ground staff and crews” for working to maintain more than 80 percent of short- and medium-haul flights and more than 90 percent of long-haul flights during the strike.


“Air France management today invited the cabin crew unions to resume negotiations in August,” said the airline. “It hopes to allow time for peaceful negotiations.”


The patience of the flight attendants remains in question, however, and union leaders have threatened to strike again as early as next week. Unions representing roughly half of the striking crewmembers called for the last weeklong action after they failed to negotiate an extension to the existing contract, which expires in October. Management wants the extension to last 18 months, while union negotiators have asked for between three and five years. At issue remain pay, work rules and promotion policy.


Air France’s last strike lasted from June 11 to June 14, when a pilot walkout cost the airline an estimated €40 million ($44 million).