It was announced by the Chief Financial Officer of Air France, Pierre-Francois Riolacci on Wednesday.
"A ten-day strike of Air France pilots will cost the airline nearly 500 million euros," he said.
The strike, which lasted from September 15 to September 28, was organized to protest against the creation of Transavia, a low-cost affiliate of Air France. The Air France authorities intend to make the affiliate one of the leaders of the European budget companies by optimizing resources and air traffic.
Under pressure from the French government and public opinion, the pilots were forced to suspend the strike without attaining the conditions laid down to the Directorate of the company – equal labor contracts for all pilots of the group.
One of the Air France representative said that with the current monthly 17,000 euros salary of airline pilot, the new project increased the flying rate without salary rise. Eventually, it became the main "stumbling block" in negotiations between pilot unions and Air France Directorate.
It is to be recalled, trying to overcome the crisis, the French government decided to cancel plans on Transavia creation. At the same time, Air France, where the state owns only 16% of the shares, is not going to completely abandon the project of creating the low-cost affiliate.
As reported, last week the crisis in Air France paralyzed the air transport industry in France. Air France-KLM pilots demanded to cancel plans for the Transavia low-cost affiliate development. The strikers demanded to create for the flight crews of Transavia the same conditions as the flight crews of Air France have. Every day the strike cost Air France about 20 million euros. At the same time, the authorities were to announce the final loss a little later.