MarcusGB, your absolutely right. I must confess even I did not realise AF pilots were earning that sort of money. I think however the problem is not just AF, it is the culture in France from airline personnel to farmers to the factory floor. It is the UK of the seventies, and they just do not see it, or if they do as you say don’t care.
It is some years since I flew AF, was not impressed then. I use KLM from time to time and like you think they are pretty good, as I do personally with BA and SAS.
In defence of some parts of French industry there are some waking up to the problems they face now and are going to face in the future. When we closed our French office and moved the operation to Belgium precisely because of the red tape and social costs of doing business there we were begged by the equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce to stay.
Both Thales and Airbus have threatened the French government with moving more of their manufacturing out of France if the situation does not change, Serge Dassault a respected voice in French industry and a politician caused a lot of controversy when in 2012 he suggested that manufacturing airplanes in France was no longer financially viable.
Change is coming and perhaps when the idiot Hollande is gone there may be an opportunity to make that change faster.
