FRANCE: : Chaos at Charles de Gaulle airport on third day of Air France cabin crew strike

Record ID: 340248

  • Title: FRANCE: : Chaos at Charles de Gaulle airport on third day of Air France cabin crew strike
  • Date: 28th October 2007
  • Summary: (EU) ROISSY CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT, FRANCE (OCTOBER 27, 2007) (REUTERS) AIR FRANCE PLANES ON TARMAC
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA4IT7YLRCZTB7ACDY3WZFA758T
  • Story Text: An Air France cabin crew strike is causing chaos at Paris airports, but the airline estimates being able to run 70 percent of its flights on Saturday.
    An Air France cabin crew strike caused chaos on Saturday (October 27) at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport as the strike coincided with the start of France's half-term school holidays.
    Air France said it would be operating 70 percent of its flights on Saturday and for the next few days after unions called a five-day cabin crew strike over salaries and working conditions.
    Air France issued a statement saying that is also using all other possible solutions to reroute passengers on to the lines of its Sky Team partners and other companies.
    Travellers at Roissy Airport queued for hours hoping to board planes.
    Most of them complain about the lack of information.

    "So we've been waiting since 10am this morning, which is not so long, but we wait for our departure to Hong Kong on Air France and we have absolutely no information. The last we were told is that there is a plane but no crew so we suggested to be the crew and now we don't have any more information. So we are really displeased because our main problem is the lack of information. It's unbearable," said passenger Cecile Thomas.

    "I'm going to Johannesburg and I'm waiting since five o'clock this morning and Air France say you must come back for every flight that they have up here and then you have to wait and see whether you can get on the flight. And at the moment there's no information of when we will be leaving yet or when the next flight is going to be. They're just cancelling all the flights," added a South African traveller.
    At the heart of the dispute is the renegotiation of a framework agreement on salaries and working conditions due to expire at the end of 2007.
    Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta said in a letter to Air France the workers' claims could "hurt the company and reopen the infernal cycle of losses and savings plans", according to Le Parisien newspaper.
    Air France said last Wednesday it would reimburse tickets on flights that had been cancelled if no alternative route could be found.
    Air France, the world's largest airline by revenues, called for dialogue with unions but it said it had taken legal action seeking damages from three unions it said had broken a strike truce agreement.
    Air France said it was ready to discuss pay and working conditions but it said proposals had to be compatible with the stability of the group in the medium and long term.
    The CGT union has accused Air France management of "disinformation" and said the dispute was likely to cost the company more than it would pay by accepting staff demands.
    Talks between the two sides were due to resume on Saturday.
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