Air France Forced to Ground a Boeing 787

All across the world, pilot unions demand different things including salary increases or better working conditions and usually airlines resolve the conflict. Air France however, have been facing issues for the past week, forcing them to cancel hundreds of flights and pay passengers compensation among other fees resulting in multi-million euro losses.

The Boeing 787 is Air France's newest addition to the fleet and has helped to keep fuel costs down in addition to bringing in large profits and offer passengers brilliant comfort. However, the pilot union strikes have significantly affected the airlines' operations, as now, the carrier has been forced to ground one of its new Boeing 787s, resulting in schedule changes and fees related to the grounding of the aircraft. The Boeing 787 that will be grounded, currently operates the Paris Charles Du Gaulle to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport route. Because pilots who are able to operate the 787 are going on strike, Air France has had to find a replacement aircrft capable of suiting the route as well as having a free enough schedule to operate it. The 3 times weekly flight which used to be operated by the 787, will be replaced by a Boeing 777, one of the biggest aircraft in its fleet. Because of the large increase in capacity, Air France is able to reduce the weekly frequencies on the route without further reducing capacity on it. Although this means that passengers that have already booked on these flights may have to be rebooked on to different flights, the airline will still be able to transport the passengers rather then cancelling the flights which would result in huge losses for the French carrier.

Currently, Air France is working with the different pilot unions to find a solution to the conflict. Not all unions have gone on strikes, and so Air France is still able to operate a few of its flights, including man that are operated by Boeing 777s. Unions have demanded pay rises of 6% however Air France have only agreed to a 2% increase in salary. This provoked unions to strike, and so they did, costing Air France over 250 million euros. After Air France recieved the call that many of its pilots would go on strike, an Air France spokesman said, “By making this decision to launch additional strikes, bringing the total number of days of strike action to 15, they are choosing to put the company's economic situation even more at risk and further increase the risk of deeply damaging our customers' trust and loyalty”. To again try and resolve the conflict, Air France said, “As from 10am today until Friday 4 May 2018 at 6pm, Air France staff can vote on the proposed pay agreement and make their voices heard to end the conflict”. The reason Air France did not agree to the pay rise was because they think that it would affect the carrier's profitability and drag it into losses.

We will have to wait and see what will happen to Air France, however AviationCult and I wish the best of luck to Air France during this incredibly difficult period.