Air France grounds 10 percent of flights due to labor unrest

Air France has grounded nearly 10% of its flight services because of the ongoing strike by its 15,000 cabin crew which entered into its fourth day November 1, 2011. Among the grounded services includes long-haul flights to Atlanta, Abu Dhabi and Montreal.

The airline stated that its cabin crew unions have called for a strike starting October 29, 2011 and would be continuing to stay away from work completely by up till November 2, 2011. The strike will also span the All Saints Day holiday, which is one of the busiest travel periods in France, thus resulting in substantial losses for the airline.

The cabin crews of Air France have been agitating putting up strong protests to force the airline management halt staff reduction plans on Airbus SAS single-aisle jets. Air France has been struggling to cut costs after earnings sharply dipped. The turmoil also recently forced Air France’s CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon out of office this month.

Air France-KLM has reported operating losses in two of the past three fiscal years after 11 years of profitability. In 2011, Air France is targeting nothing more than breakeven.