Yesterday afternoon, Air France issued a press release announcing the acceleration of the implementation of its Perform 2020 planThis has resulted in an even more drastic rationalization of purchases, an acceleration of the implementation of voluntary redundancy plans for ground staff and cabin crew, and above all the closure or significant reduction of capacity on certain medium and long-haul destinations on the airline’s network.
A Transform 2015 plan with uncompleted outlines
Last but not least, the press release concludes that Air France is taking legal action against the main airline pilots’ union, SNPL Alpa, for failing to meet its commitments to improve productivity by at least 20% during the implementation of the Transform 2015 plan that preceded Perform.
According to Le Figaro, the observed productivity improvement is only 12% since the beginning of 2015.
It should be remembered that the efforts of the Transform plan have been borne mainly by ground staff and flight attendants, due to the reorganization of rotations for the latter, and the outsourcing of handling at many stations, particularly those serviced by HOP!
Transavia France’s growth remains endemic
The conflict last September between the pilots and the management of Air France is symptomatic of the managerial malaise of the airline. The fact that pilots strike for reasons related to the business strategy is unacceptable, especially when the European majors adopted the same strategy several years ago (LH Group with Germanwings, IAG with Vueling).
Also, and despite the lose-lose conflict of last fall, the growth of Transavia France has remained very limited, going in 8 months from 14 to only 18 aircraft, while Vueling has a fleet of 96 aircraft and Germanwings 83, although the latter was created well after Transavia.
In an exponential growth, achieved by transfer from Air France, Transavia could be one of the savers of our national airline on the point to point, much more than HOP, which remains on a cost structure of traditional airline operating on regional routes.
A new conflict that promises to be a lose-lose one, too
By engaging the courts, Air France knows that it is heading for another major social conflict. But she also knows now that she must not let go. Letting the pilots guide the strategy is a sign of weakness on the part of management, which must impose Transavia on everyone, but also rationalize HOP! and continue to invest in the product and in staff training to remain competitive in long-haul flights.
However, will the management be able to resist for a long time in front of the lack of cash generated by a social conflict, and by a deep degradation of its image on the international customers? Nothing is less certain.
What do you think about this?
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