Air France, Lufthansa Hit By Pilot Strikes Protesting Cost Cutting Measures

Air France pilots have gone on a week-long strike from Monday and Lufthansa pilots are expected to join in for a day to protest against the management's efforts to cut costs and promote low cost air affiliates.

This is the second strike by Air France workers this year and Lufthansa staff will strike work the fourth time in three weeks.

Lufthansa pilots'  three-day walkout last April forced the airline to cancel 3,800 flights.

At the center of the dispute is Air Frances' efforts to promote low-cost operations with flight crews being paid less for working more to cut costs and get rid of non-money making routes.

The airline unions say that the flag carrier is seeking to promote its Transavia France subsidiary at the cost of the main airlines.  A pilot for the French flag carrier earns about 75,000 euros ($97,000) a year on average while captains of long-haul flights can earn up to 250,000 euros, reports channelnewsasia.com.

To allay fears the company announced the Transavia fleet will be limited to 30 planes instead of the 37 originally planned, at least till 2019.

"We have made proposals. We have recognised the concerns of pilots who thought Transavia France could replace Air France in France," he added. The plan "is of course not to replace Air France with Transavia," said AIr France chief Frederic Gagey. The company plans to "add to the tools at Air France's disposal to attack a new market - the leisure market - by developing Transavia," he added. He put the the daily losses from the strike at 10 to 15 million euros.

The airline is facing the heat from low cost startups like Ryanair Holdings Plc, which are aggressively promoting discount travel.

"Short-haul operations of both airlines are in quite a lot of trouble and they're having to cut costs quickly," said Robin Byde, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, reports Bloomberg.

The first day of the strike affected between 65,000 and 70,000 passengers and the strike will continue till Sept. 22,  said  Air France-KLM Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac at a briefing in Paris.

"We're telling people who don't absolutely have to travel to postpone their trip," Air France Head of Operations Catherine Jude said at a briefing in Paris, reports Bloomberg.

With close partnership alliances between Delta-Air France-KLM passengers need to check their bookings to avoid being grounded.

 Lufthansa has already assured passengers that it will operate its full schedule to Munich and as many short-haul flights as possible out of Frankfurt, reports CondeNast .com