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Minister’s claim of Air France climbdown in pilots’ strike 'premature', report

Air France on Wednesday contradicted French Transport Minister Alain Vidalies’s claim that it had scrapped plans for Transavia Europe, the part of its low-cost arm that has sparked a pilots’ strike now in its 10th day, according to reports.

"Pilots on strike for our future," reads a sticker on a striker's uniform during a rally in Paris on Tuesday
"Pilots on strike for our future," reads a sticker on a striker's uniform during a rally in Paris on Tuesday BFMTV
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“The Transavia Europe project has been dropped by management,” Vidalies told RMC radio on Wednesday morning, adding that “there is no reason for the strike to continue”.

But a company spokesperson almost immediately declared the minister’s announcement “premature”.

“No change in the negotiations allows us to confirm that the project has been withdrawn,” the spokesperson told the AFP news agency, insisting that the company was standing by CEO Alexandre de Juniac’s proposal to suspend the plan for three months, despite Vidalies’s explicit statement that this was no longer the case.

If talks with the pilots’ unions fail the project will be scrapped, the spokesperson told AFP, “but it is premature to say today that the project has been withdrawn now”.

Vidalies said he supported the development of Transavia Europe, claiming that it would create 1,000 jobs, 250 of them for pilots.

The strike entered its 10th day on Wednesday.

Transavia has three arms – Europe, Holland and France - and the striking pilots believe that Transavia Europe will take jobs out of France so as to reduce pay and worsen working conditions.

The company says the industrial action is costing 15 million euros a day and threatens the future of the whole company.
 

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