Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS
AIR FRANCE CHAIRMAN Christian Blanc has won a major round in his battle to cut costs, with the company's two main pilots' unions settling a drawn-out dispute over working conditions. The deal could boost pilot productivity by 30% and bring to an end a series of damaging strikes.
Year-long negotiations have culminated in the powerful pilots' union SNPL and the smaller SPAC giving in to the company's demand that they should raise 1996 flight hours per head to 632 instead of the normal 542. The flight engineers' union SNOMAC has also tentatively agreed to the deal.
With the flight-hours dispute resolved, negotiators have turned their attention to pilot salaries. Average Air France pilot pay, at around Fr550,000 ($108,000) a year, is among Europe's highest.
Blanc expects to extend the Air France pilots' deal, to sister company Air Inter Europe by the time it takes over, all flights in Europe and becomes Air France Europe, on 1 April 1997. Air Inter Europe pilots, who have more advantageous terms than their Air France colleagues, have refused to negotiate new working conditions and pay with the management. Blanc has warned that, if need be, he will apply the new rules unilaterally.
Source: Flight International
