MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - Air France has announced it will operate 41 percent of its flights on Monday, the airline's eighth day of pilots" strikes, Le Parisien reported on Sunday.
According to the newspaper, management of the company announced 41 percent of its flights on Monday would continue as planned while the strike continues at a rate of 65 percent.
On Friday and Saturday, the airline operated 45 percent of its scheduled flights and 38 percent of its Sunday flights as the company predicted.
Although the strike was originally scheduled to end on Sunday, the main pilots' union, SNPL Air France Alpa voted on Saturday to continue the strike until September 26, according to the airline.
Though Air France offers its customers the option to change their flight plans or refund their tickets, the airline's website and customer support is struggling with the influx of requests. Customers calling the airline can expect a three hour wait while queues at Air France offices stretch up to two hours.
Currently there are more than 3,700 pilots working for Air France, which exceeds the needs of the company. Company's management plans to send the substantial part of the pilots to Air France's affiliated company Hop! and Transavia, a Dutch based low-cost airline operating as an independent part of the Air France-KLM group. The company's employees have agreed to the transfer, but claim that their social welfare benefits and status should remain unchanged, as well as the level of wages. Pilots also protest against the reduction of staff.
