Several air transport unions are calling for a strike this Thursdayis for protest against the government plan to increase taxes on the sector by a billion euros. This mobilization will have little impact on flightsaccording to initial estimates from airline executives on Tuesday. However, at the moment, they do not have full visibility on the number of strikers.
No significant disruptions
The main French airlines do not expect significant disruptions of their flight programs, according to initial estimates. “We should be able to transport all customers” having planned to travel, declared the deputy general director and general secretary of Air France-KLM, Alexandre Boissy, during a press conference this Tuesday. Corsair, Air Caraibes, French Bee, easyJet and Air Austral are not planning any flight cancellations.
“For Corsair, we do not anticipate any disruptions due to this strike“, declared the CEO of this company, Pascal de Izaguirre, also current president of the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), which brings together the French aviation sector. “For Air Caraibes and French Bee, we also do not anticipate any modifications or impact on our program“, underlined for her part Christine Ourmières-Widener, boss of Air Caraibes and French Bee.
This prognosis of consequences “limited“is also valid”for other companies (airlines in France) which are not currently around this table as well, but which do not foresee an impact”affirmed Pascal de Izaguirre.
A rally in front of the National Assembly
The deputies, who are examining the draft 2025 budget, approved last Friday the increase in taxation on air transport proposed by the government, however limiting its duration to one year and excluding overseas territories and Corsica from the system. This amendment is intended increase air transport taxation by a billion eurosnotably via a tripling of the solidarity tax on plane tickets (TSBA). “This tax has both the virtue of contributing to the restoration of State accounts, but also an environmental aim“due to carbon emissions from aviation, defended Transport Minister François Durovray on Sunday franceinfo.
The national union of airline pilots and several other organizations – UNSA transport, UNSA PNC, CFE-CGC FNEMA, UNAC, SNPNC-FO and FEETS-FO – announced that they were calling “all employees of the airline sector to come and demonstrate their disagreement with this tax that is deadly for jobs before the National Assembly on November 14”. “This project is an unprecedented attack on the airline sector in France, its jobs, its competitiveness and its sustainability“, they denounce.
According to Fnam, this increase in taxation, which companies will not be able to absorb and will have to pass on to the price of tickets, “could lead to a reduction in traffic in 2025 of 2% on average across the entire territory“.
