Air France staff are striking in the hope of salary increases. Unions want the airline to share its 2017 financial success, but management says more pay raises aren't possible.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/S.Stache
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Air France staff on Friday went on strike for the third time in one month, causing the airline to cancel a quarter of its flights.
"On 30 March 2018 we expect to operate 75 percent of our flight schedule," the airline said on its website.
Air France estimated that 31.6 percent of pilots, 28.3 percent of cabin crew and 20.4 percent of ground staff were striking.
A group of 11 trade unions have already staged two strikes this year, on February 22 and March 23, in the hope of obtaining a 6-percent pay raise. Two more protests have been planned for April 3 and April 7.
Unions say the airline should share the company's wealth with its staff after it experienced strong results last year, but management claims it cannot offer higher salaries without putting growth at risk in what is a highly competitive sector.
DW Business – Europe
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Pay raise incoming
Air France is due to introduce a 0.6 percent pay raise from April 1 and 0.4 percent from October 1, along with bonuses and promotions equivalent to a 1.4 percent raise for ground staff.
CEO Franck Terner on Thursday said that with operating profits of nearly €590 million ($727 million) last year, only €200 million could be put toward salary increases.
"To distribute wealth we have to create it first," Terner told French newspaper Le Parisien.
Airline logos: Colorful, stark and striking
The large, often stylized logos on airplane tails allow you to immediately recognize the airline when you spot a plane. Many use birds in their designs, but all companies want to let you know where they are based.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
Qantas
The plane tails of Australia's national airline Qantas are embellished with a stylized kangaroo, hence the nickname "the Flying Kangaroo!" Even from a far distance, it's easy to tell which continent the plane comes from. After all, kangaroos only exist in Australia. This animal has become a sort of national logo, appearing not only on planes but also on Australia's coat of arms and currency.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
In contrast to its Australian counterpart, the logo of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is more factual. The abstract symbol of a crown in combination with the three letters KLM leaves no doubt as to which country this plane comes from. And that's what logos are all about.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/R. de Waal
Gambia Bird
The tiny West African state is a paradise for birds and their friends. More than 500 different kinds of birds live in the Gambia. Tourists don't even need to take birdwatching trips because many birds can be spotted in hotel gardens — they're just everywhere! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Gambian national airline went for a bird as its logo when it was founded in 2012. Service ceased in 2014.
Image: flickr/Transport Pixels
Alaska Airlines
The Seattle-based airline has proved its creativity on several occasions during its 90-year-long history. The company was among the first airlines to sell tickets online and to offer online and automatic check-ins. Like its name, the logo of the airline refers to Alaska and its indigenous inhabitants, the Inuit.
Image: Reuters
Iran Air
A trade embargo and political tensions between 1980 and 2016 made it hard for Iran's state airline with headquarters at Tehran's Mehrabad airport to modernize its planes. But maybe the "homa," the mythological bird used in the logo, came to the rescue of the airline. According to Persian mythology, "homa" is believed to bring luck and joy while living its life entirely in the sky.
Image: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
Air Tanzania
Over the years Tanzania's national airline has also had to face numerous challenges. Sometimes its fleet was in the air, sometimes not, and the airline's owners also frequently changed. It's certainly not the fault of the giraffe logo. The world's tallest animal looks so friendly and inviting on the plane;what passenger could say no to stepping onboard for a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro?
Image: flickr/stevesaviation
Takeoff into the future
A crane has served as the logo of Germany's largest airline since 1918. Some types of cranes cover enormous distances when they migrate, but others are considered pests due to their enormous appetites. Lufhansa is now flying into the future with a new logo design. The symbol will be the same, but the colors will change. Goodbye yellow and gray, hello simple white and blue!
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lufthansa
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Plagued by strikes
The Air France-KLM group, Europe's second-biggest airline that is 17.6 percent owned by France, has faced numerous strikes and labor disputes in its French operations over the last few years.
In 2015, two French company executives had their shirts ripped off by workers protesting plans to cut almost 3,000 jobs.
Despite strong operating profits of €1.5 million in 2017, Air France-KLM made net losses in 2017 of 274 million euros due to the costs of a new retirement deal with KLM pilots and cabin crew.
Lawyers in France were also planning to strike across the country on Friday against reforms they say would overcentralize France's court system, while staff at state rail operator SNCF are set to begin three months of rolling strikes next week.
