Air France (AF, Paris CDG) management has offered to withdraw immediately its Transavia Europe plans in return for its pilots returning to work. The airline made the proposal on the 10th day of a pilot strike that has so far cost the airline over EUR180million in total losses.
Management said in its offer that further development of Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly) will be done under "competitive economic conditions and accompanied by the safeguards as discussed in the negotiations so far."
"This balanced proposal meets the unions’ requirements by providing a renewed guarantee that there will be no relocation," the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. "It preserves the Transavia development project, a “made in France” solution to face the competition from foreign low-cost carriers and conquer this rapidly-expanding market."
Negotiations between the airline's SNPL union and management are ongoing.
Pilots had objected to management's decision to reposition the Air France-KLM Transavia Airlines (HV, Amsterdam Schiphol) and Transavia France subsidiaries as regional European budget carriers whose pilots, while sourced from Air France, would work under less generous Transavia contracts.
Air France-KLM sees the move as the only viable way of reclaiming European medium-haul market share lost to the likes of Vueling Airlines (VY, Barcelona El Prat), Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), easyJet (London Luton), and Wizz Air (W6, Budapest).
