Striking Air France pilots have rejected an offer by the chief executive of Air France to suspend the roll-out of the airline's low-cost subsidiary Transavia until December.
Alexandre de Juniac had this morning said the move would allow more time for the airline to sit down with union officials and come to an agreement. He told Le Monde that his offer was a "final proposal".
But pilots' union SNPL said the offer was a "smokescreen" that would make no difference to their negotiations, and vowed to carry on striking.
De Juniac had earlier said: "We are proposing 6to suspend until the end of the year the project to create Transavia units in Europe outside France and the Netherlands.
"That will create time to carry out a thorough dialogue on the plan and to formulate the necessary guarantees with unions...
"This arrangement must not call into question our ambition to develop Transavia, which is one of the key sources of growth for the Air France-KLM group."
The strike by Air France pilots protesting plans to transfer jobs to Transavia was today extended into its second week (see news, September 22).
The industrial action began a week ago and was originally scheduled to last seven days (see news, September 15).
But it will now last until at least Friday, and possibly indefinitely, union bosses have warned.
France's transport minister Alain Vidalies said the move could place the airline "at stake".
Graham Smith
