Air France has won the support of the biggest pilots’ union, SNPL, to create a low-cost airline. “Boost” will be launched in the autumn, using pilots on the same salaries as at Air France. Pilots approved the move by 78.2 percent with a turnout of almost 83 percent after several months of talks.
But while the pilots at Boost will not suffer from a reduction in salaries, cabin crew will be hired at a lower cost, Air France said on Monday, July 17. Air France has suffered a series of pilots’ strikes that have cost the airline millions of euros in lost revenues.
Air France plans to launch Boost in the fall on medium-haul and then in the summer of 2018 on long-haul flights, with the objective of maintaining routes currently running at a deficit on Air France and adding new ones.
The pilots’ union said it welcomed the “realisation of months of negotiation. We hope this agreement will create a dynamic of confidence, a prerequisite for preparing for the reforms of our company and thus successfully confronting competition.”