Stéphane de Sakutin, AFP | The Air France strike will continue 'for the moment', unions say

Air France’s crippling and costly strike continued Thursday despite the company’s offer to scrap plans to expand its low-cost subsidiary Transavia, the main bone of contention for the pilots’ union.

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The airline on Wednesday night proposed the "immediate withdrawal" of its plans to create an offshore-based Transavia Europe, but said it would pursue the development of the budget carrier’s services in France.

The SNPL pilots’ union said Thursday that the strike, which began on September 15, would continue “for the moment”, adding that it had “submitted a counter-proposal”.

Talks between the union and Air France-KLM management will resume on Thursday afternoon.

Air France-KLM, meanwhile, called on pilots to return to work "immediately" and end a dispute that has already stretched to 10 days and cost Europe's second-largest flag carrier 20 million euros a day.

"With the withdrawal of the Transavia Europe plan, there is no longer any reason to strike," the airline said in a statement signed by Air France-KLM chief executive Alexandre de Juniac and his Air France counterpart Frédéric Gagey.

The proposal "allows us to end this destructive conflict", they said. "We call on the striking pilots to return to work immediately."

The French government, which owns 16 percent of the carrier, welcomed Air France's proposal and said it was "now the responsibility of the pilots to end the strike".

Many Air France pilots, who earn up to 250,000 euros a year, are angry at the plans to develop budget carrier Transavia, which currently serves holiday destinations across Europe and the Mediterranean, to and from French airports.

They fear management will eventually seek to replace Air France flights with services operated by Transavia, whose pilots earn considerably less.

The dispute has led to the grounding of more than half of Air France flights, while services at French regional airports have been hit even harder.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)



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