PARIS
A majority of Air France planes were grounded Monday as pilots started a week of industrial action - expected to be the biggest to affect the national-carrier since 1998.
The airline said Monday that 60 percent of its flights had been cancelled, and it had to deploy some 7,000 extra workers to help stranded customers.
Chief Executive Frederic Gagey told France Internationale radio that the cancellations would cost the company millions of euros (dollars), "up to 15 million a day."
The strike, organized by pilots union SNPL (Syndicat National des Pilotes de Linge) - comes in response to the airline’s plans to hire hundreds of new pilots on lower pay to fly for Transavia, a budget subsidiary.
Since Friday, the airline has asked passengers booked on flights between September 15 and 22 to postpone trips or change tickets.
In 1998, seven days before it hosted the football World Cup, 3,200 Air France pilots went on a 9-day strike over salary reductions.
Three quarters of flights were suspended and the airline lost a total of 900 million francs ($177,318 at present exchange rates - although the French Franc is now obsolete).
www.aa.com.tr/en
