Zone of turbulence at Air France. The French airline detailed, Friday, July 3, its intention to cut 6,560 jobs in the flagship airline and a thousand others in its regional subsidiary Hop! to adapt its workforce to the health crisis, which is hitting the entire aviation sector hard.

Information that confirms the fears of the unions: several union sources explained to AFP, on June 30, that the aeronautical group intended to cut more than 7,500 jobs by the end of 2022, including 6,560 in the tricolor company and more 1,000 in the regional company Hop !.

Forced departures envisaged

"The needs are in sharp decline over the entire period in connection with the drop in activity and the need to accelerate the transformation of the company", explained the management in a document consulted by AFP upstream of '' a central economic and social committee (CSEC), which took place on Friday at Air France.

The redundancies, expressed in permanent FTE (full-time equivalents), should go through natural departures not replaced (about 3,500 out of 41,000 at Air France) and essentially voluntary departures, even if, from the same sources , forced departures are not excluded for the staff of the short-haul network.

Hop !, which currently has some 2,400 FTEs, according to union sources, is particularly affected. The Hop! in Morlaix and Lille would be threatened with closure, as would a base of Air France cabin crew in Toulouse.

A sector at half mast

At Air France, departures must go through collective break-ups for aircrew, while a voluntary departure plan (PDV) is preferred for ground staff. Management wishes to open negotiations with ground staff unions in early July for the first departures in early 2021.

The shock linked to the Covid-19 epidemic was unprecedented for the French company as for its international rivals, who have chained in recent weeks the announcements of clear cuts in their workforce: 22,000 at the German group Lufthansa, 12,000 at British Airways or 10,000 for the American Delta Air Lines.

The French State, shareholder of Air France-KLM, has provided financial support of 7 billion euros to the Franco-Dutch group, including 4 billion guaranteed bank loans and 3 billion direct loan, asking it to improve its profitability and its environmental impact.

In response, the director general of Air France-KLM, Benjamin Smith, announced in late May the reduction of the French network (loss-making) by 40% by the end of 2021.

With AFP

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