Air France rules out massive layoffs even if talks with unions fail

Air France management has ruled out massive layoffs even if negotiations with trade unions fail to reach agreement on its plan to reform the troubled company.

A plane of French regional airline unit Hop! takes off behind the retired Concorde number 5 at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris Reuters

At a works committee meeting to discuss its Perform 2000 plan on Thursday, Air France management pledged not to declare thousands of redundancies, according to union representatives.

The promise stands even if unions representing pilots and cabin crews do not accept the plan, they said.

Air France has said that it will reduce flights by 10 per cent by 2017 if there is no agreement by the end of September, leading unions to fear big job losses.

But company chairman Frédéric Gagey did not even mention this "plan B", leaving it to the deputy head of human resources Xavier Broseta, who said there would not be "massive" compulsory redundancies package in either case.

There could, however, be job losses among flight crews and voluntary departures among ground staff, unions say.

Perform plans to make 1.13 million euros of savings across the Air France group by 2017.

Gagey told the meeting he wanted to see a "return to growth" in 2017 and called for increased productivity and lower costs.