These salary cuts “should help Air France to save around 300 million euros,” throughout the duration of the crisis.

The pilots of the national airline Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Transavia have seen their pay reduced since April, an effort “made necessary” by the Covid-19 crisis, said the SNPL union.

“The pilots of Air France and Transavia France have been experiencing a 25% to 40% reduction in their pay since April 2020, compared to their pre-crisis salaries”, states the SNPL in a press release.

“Unlike the pilots of competing airlines, who have a fixed salary, the wage system for Air France and Transavia France pilots is strongly linked to the actual activity,” it says.

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Their pay is calculated in part on the hours flown. However, as for the rest of the airline sector, the Air France group’s business was virtually non-existent in April and May and only slightly recovered. This reduction “should enable Air France to save around 300 million euros per year throughout the duration of the global crisis linked to Covid-19 and thus help it, in part, to overcome its financial difficulties”, claims the pilots’ union, which represents the majority at Air France. The average salary of a captain in the French airline is 11,000 euros compared to 7,500 euros in a “low cost” airline.

Expected departures of Air France pilots

The SNPL Air France-Transavia also points out that “in order to further reduce the wage bill and curb pilot over-staffing, Air France management and the SNPL concluded a collective termination agreement within a few weeks to allow the early departure of pilots from the carrier”.

This agreement foresees that some 400 pilots, i.e. nearly 10% of the workforce, will “leave Air France definitively at the end of August,” voluntarily. “With these pay cuts and the adjustment of the staff, Air France and Transavia France airline pilots are fully taking part in the efforts made necessary by this exceptional and lasting crisis that we are going through,” highlights Guillaume Gestas, President of the union, quoted in the press release.

At the British Airways competitor, the Balpa union announced on August 1 that the pilots had approved a plan for temporary wage cuts of 20 per cent to limit the number of layoffs to 270. The airline which has 4,300 pilots, initially planned to lay off 1,125 of them and to lay off and then rehire the others on less favourable terms.

Air France’s management intends to cut 7,580 jobs by the end of 2022 in the national flag carrier and its regional subsidiary Hop! They expect both non-replacement leaves and voluntary leaves, but they do not rule compulsory leave out for short-haul flights.