The main French airlines do not a priori expect significant disruptions to their flight schedules on Thursday despite a call for mobilization from cabin crew unions, their leaders indicated on Tuesday.
“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 of the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), at the unison of managers from Air Caraibes, French Bee and Corsair.
“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 Fnam, which brings together the French airline sector.
Several organizations representing employees in the airline sector, including the powerful National Union of Line Pilots (SNPL), called on their members to mobilize on Thursday to protest against the government plan to increase transport taxation by a billion euros. air in the finance bill for 2025.
“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.
What a forecast 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”, said Mr. de Izaguirre.
In addition to the SNPL, several other unions in the sector – the UNSA transport, the UNSA PNC, the CFE-CGC FNEMA, the UNAC, the SNPNC-FO and FEETS-FO – have announced that they are 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.
The deputies, who are examining the draft 2025 budget, approved on Friday the increase in taxation on air transport proposed by the government, however limiting its duration to one year and excluding overseas and Corsica from the system. .
This amendment is supposed to increase air transport taxation by one billion euros with entry into force on January 1, 2025.
On Sunday, Transport Minister François Durovray defended this tax increase on France Info : “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.
