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Divorce is not an option, KLM chief says ahead of crucial Air France KLM AGM
The future of the now rudderless Air France KLM airline alliance – indeed of Air France itself – will be key to discussions at the combine’s AGM in Paris on Tuesday, even though KLM’s president Pieter Elbers has rejected suggestions the two companies should divorce.
Tuesday will also be the last day for Jean-Marc Janaillac to be at the helm of the troubled transnational alliance. Janaillac stepped down when the powerful French airlines pilots union rejected his latest offer on a pay and conditions agreement 10 days ago. The Dutch flag carrier is holding several aces. The cost of the strikes by Air France pilots so far this year have been upwardly revised to €400m from €300m in the space of one week. And the strikes are ongoing.
KLM‘s strong cards include its profitability: in the 2018 first quarter KLM booked operating profit €32m higher at €60m. Air France posted operating losses of €178m in the same period.
Also, KLM and its Transavia subsidiary carried 4.3 million passengers in April, putting the Dutch arm ahead of Air France which moved 3.9 million passengers in that month. This was the first month since the ‘merger’ that the Dutch arm flew more passengers than Air France. This was due entirely to ‘eight days of strikes at Air France’ in April, the combine said.
There is a strong lobby saying KLM should go it alone. But KLM president Pieter Elbers flatly rejects this. Speaking on the Dutch public affairs television programme Buitenhof on Sunday, Elbers said a divorce of the two carriers was ‘not an option.’
KLM and Air France, he said. need each other. ‘We have accomplished a lot together and not everything is reflected in the balance sheet.’
Nevertheless, Air France must get its house in order, Elbers warned. Negotiations with the unions are stalled. Air France has lost 15 days this year due to strikes. And whatever the unions may believe, the French government will not invest more in the airline nor is it allowed to by the EU. ‘Air France must do it by itself,’ Elbers said.
Influence
Elbers said he wants the spirit of the early years of the alliance to return. When Air France KLM was formed in 2004, Air France chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta served as chairman while KLM president Leo van Wijk was his number two.
But the Dutch influence has steadily shrunk. Air France KLM now has a single Frenchman in charge and a supervisory board consisting of nine French nationals and four representing KLM. Yet KLM accounts for 40% of the turnover and 60% of the combine’s operating profit.
Certainly KLM is pushing for a stronger role in the running of Air France KLM – a shift in the balance of power.
New CEO
The Financial Times suggested on Sunday that Pieter Elbers himself would be the best new head of Air France KLM. ‘Elbers would arguably be the boldest choice,’ the FT said.
Michiel Wallaard, chief negotiator with KLM from the Dutch CNV trade union federation, describes Elbers as striking ‘a balance between modernising and keeping the social dialogue alive.’
However, Wallard warned that there might be pressure to appoint a Frenchman. ‘We are realistic: we are owned by a French company and I don’t think they want a Dutch person to lead the business,’ the FT reported him as saying.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/...ief-says-ahead-of-crucial-air-france-klm-agm/
The future of the now rudderless Air France KLM airline alliance – indeed of Air France itself – will be key to discussions at the combine’s AGM in Paris on Tuesday, even though KLM’s president Pieter Elbers has rejected suggestions the two companies should divorce.
Tuesday will also be the last day for Jean-Marc Janaillac to be at the helm of the troubled transnational alliance. Janaillac stepped down when the powerful French airlines pilots union rejected his latest offer on a pay and conditions agreement 10 days ago. The Dutch flag carrier is holding several aces. The cost of the strikes by Air France pilots so far this year have been upwardly revised to €400m from €300m in the space of one week. And the strikes are ongoing.
KLM‘s strong cards include its profitability: in the 2018 first quarter KLM booked operating profit €32m higher at €60m. Air France posted operating losses of €178m in the same period.
Also, KLM and its Transavia subsidiary carried 4.3 million passengers in April, putting the Dutch arm ahead of Air France which moved 3.9 million passengers in that month. This was the first month since the ‘merger’ that the Dutch arm flew more passengers than Air France. This was due entirely to ‘eight days of strikes at Air France’ in April, the combine said.
There is a strong lobby saying KLM should go it alone. But KLM president Pieter Elbers flatly rejects this. Speaking on the Dutch public affairs television programme Buitenhof on Sunday, Elbers said a divorce of the two carriers was ‘not an option.’
KLM and Air France, he said. need each other. ‘We have accomplished a lot together and not everything is reflected in the balance sheet.’
Nevertheless, Air France must get its house in order, Elbers warned. Negotiations with the unions are stalled. Air France has lost 15 days this year due to strikes. And whatever the unions may believe, the French government will not invest more in the airline nor is it allowed to by the EU. ‘Air France must do it by itself,’ Elbers said.
Influence
Elbers said he wants the spirit of the early years of the alliance to return. When Air France KLM was formed in 2004, Air France chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta served as chairman while KLM president Leo van Wijk was his number two.
But the Dutch influence has steadily shrunk. Air France KLM now has a single Frenchman in charge and a supervisory board consisting of nine French nationals and four representing KLM. Yet KLM accounts for 40% of the turnover and 60% of the combine’s operating profit.
Certainly KLM is pushing for a stronger role in the running of Air France KLM – a shift in the balance of power.
New CEO
The Financial Times suggested on Sunday that Pieter Elbers himself would be the best new head of Air France KLM. ‘Elbers would arguably be the boldest choice,’ the FT said.
Michiel Wallaard, chief negotiator with KLM from the Dutch CNV trade union federation, describes Elbers as striking ‘a balance between modernising and keeping the social dialogue alive.’
However, Wallard warned that there might be pressure to appoint a Frenchman. ‘We are realistic: we are owned by a French company and I don’t think they want a Dutch person to lead the business,’ the FT reported him as saying.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/...ief-says-ahead-of-crucial-air-france-klm-agm/
Qualche aggiornamento:
Air France-KLM Thinks Having 3(!) CEOs Is a Great Idea
Having two CEOs can be a tricky balancing act to pull off… so how about three? That’s the situation Air France-KLM finds itself in, for now at least.
The beleaguered carrier group recently lost CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac due to his inability to end long-running French strikes over pay, and now it’s replaced him with a trio: CFO Frédéric Gagey, who is stepping up as group CEO; and the Air France and KLM CEOs, Franck Terner and Pieter Elbers, who are now also both deputy group CEOs. Meanwhile, former French employment and labor minister Anne-Marie Couderc has become executive chairman of the group’s board.
This setup is being presented as transitional, while the company finds a proper replacement for Janaillac. But it doesn’t seem like the triumvirate will be able to do much to solve the issue that brought Janaillac down: those strikes (which must be viewed in the context of wider pushback against President Emmanuel Macron’s attempted labor reforms).
“Regarding the ongoing labor dispute at Air France, the Air France-KLM Board of Directors confirms that the Air France CEO does not have a new mandate to take decisions that would jeopardize the growth strategy approved by the Air France-KLM Board of Directors,” the company said.
As Bloomberg notes, that leaves the unions with no-one to talk to. So whoever ends up taking Janaillac’s seat will find it just as hot as he left it—if not more so.
Air France-KLM, along with investors that include Delta and China Eastern, must be hoping this holding pattern is very brief indeed.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/16/air-france-klm-3-ceos/
Air France Finally Has the Go-Ahead to Fix Itself or Fail
After years of labor strife, the government isn’t prepared to bail out its flagship airline.
Founded almost a century ago as a mail carrier to France’s far-flung colonies, Air France has long been an avatar of the country’s glamorous image. It has ferried diplomats and dealmakers to Paris and Hollywood starlets to the festivals in Cannes. In the 1960s it clad cabin crew in Dior. In the ’70s it introduced the Concorde, which linked Paris and New York in less than four hours.
Today the glamour is mostly gone, and Air France—suffering from toxic labor relations, bloated operating costs, and strategic blunders—is more representative of the country’s woes. Jean-Marc Janaillac, chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, the company forged from the 2004 merger of the French and Dutch flagship airlines, on May 4 said he would quit. He has faced a bitter strike that has cost the carrier more than €400 million ($480 million) since February, helping drive shares down by almost half this year. The company on May 15 cobbled together a stopgap management team, with board member Anne-Marie Couderc to serve as interim nonexecutive chairman and Chief Financial Officer Frédéric Gagey as interim CEO, the third person to lead the business in less than two years.
The French government—the company’s biggest shareholder, at 14 percent—says it has no plans to bail the carrier out and that Air France “could disappear” if it doesn’t sharpen its competitive edge. With hundreds of flights canceled in the runup to the crucial summer travel season, “you may see a vicious spiral” as passengers scared by strike threats defect to other carriers, says Chris Tarry, a British aviation consultant.
Air France-KLM lags behind its major European rivals by just about every financial measure, from productivity to profit. Although it’s the region’s largest carrier by passenger-miles, it generates less than one-third the cash flow of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and International Airlines Group (IAG), the owner of British Airways, Spain’s Iberia, and Ireland’s Aer Lingus. The numbers would be even worse if not for KLM. Air France lost €178 million in the first quarter; KLM—with two-thirds the revenue of its partner—saw profit almost double to €60 million.
While its competitors have endured plenty of strikes, recently they’ve forged a cautious peace with unions. Air France, by contrast, seems locked in perpetual conflict as management has failed to convince employees that the carrier must cut costs in response to the growing strength of discounters such as Ryanair Holdings Plc and EasyJet Plc. In 2015 workers protesting planned job cuts stormed the company’s headquarters near Charles de Gaulle Airport, cornering two managers and ripping off their shirts as the men jumped a fence to escape. In the latest showdown, former CEO Janaillac offered a 7 percent wage increase over four years, while unions demanded an immediate 5.1 percent raise. Janaillac put his proposal to a vote of workers. When 55 percent said no, he said he’d step down.
At the company’s annual shareholder meeting on May 15, the new leadership offered no details about its strategy. Management decisions will be “taken collectively” by an executive committee including Gagey and the chiefs of the Dutch and French operating units, the company said in a statement, though there’s no timeline for reopening negotiations with unions. With the new executives appointed only on an interim basis, “this is not a long-term solution,” Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Daniel Röska said in a note to clients. Whoever takes over permanently will face challenges “from competitive threats in key markets, an emboldened union in France, and the lack of a coherent long-term strategy,” he wrote.
Air France-KLM has struggled to match the success of Lufthansa and IAG in developing low-cost subsidiaries to supplement its full-service offerings. It has a small discount arm, Transavia, but scrapped efforts to expand it internationally in 2015 after pilots walked out over expected lower pay for employees outside France. Then last year it launched Joon, a no-frills carrier with millennial-friendly extras such as craft beer and virtual-reality headsets. While that fits the company’s French-chic image, the two units create “operational and brand confusion,” says Andrew Lobbenberg, an analyst at HSBC Bank Plc. Instead, “the group needs an independent, unified low-cost carrier,” similar to Lufthansa’s Eurowings or IAG’s Vueling.
And while Lufthansa has expanded its cargo, catering, and maintenance units—which provide steady cash to offset fluctuations in passenger traffic—Air France-KLM has trimmed cargo capacity and sold some of its catering operations. Such missteps explain why the company lags behind its competitors, says Beltran Ybarra, a representative of Air France’s main pilots union, SNPL. “It’s strategic choices that are in question, not people,” he says.
The company urgently needs to cut costs, integrate the separately run Air France and KLM units, and develop a strategy to defend its Paris hub, where it’s under increasing attack from low-cost rivals. The scary alternative is that Air France could “head in the direction of Alitalia,” the Italian carrier that—even with massive government support—floundered for decades before sliding into bankruptcy last year, says Jos Versteeg, an analyst at Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers in Amsterdam.
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has vowed to oppose any push to get the government to shore up the airline. In a May 6 television interview, he called the pilots’ wage demands “excessive” and said Air France will have to sort out its problems on its own. “The state is not here to come to the rescue of enterprises that don’t do what’s necessary to remain competitive,” Le Maire said.
Holding firm against the unions would dovetail with President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to reinvigorate the economy. He has revamped labor laws to make it easier to fire workers and is pushing to overhaul the state-controlled railways, triggering repeated strikes by employees. “France’s government could make Air France a laboratory for social reforms and labor flexibility,” says Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. Without dramatic change, the company “risks shrinking and not being able to compete.”
BOTTOM LINE - With losses from strikes approaching $500 million this year and shares down by half, the new management at Air France must restore the carrier’s competitive edge.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...inally-has-the-go-ahead-to-fix-itself-or-fail
Air France-KLM Thinks Having 3(!) CEOs Is a Great Idea
Having two CEOs can be a tricky balancing act to pull off… so how about three? That’s the situation Air France-KLM finds itself in, for now at least.
The beleaguered carrier group recently lost CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac due to his inability to end long-running French strikes over pay, and now it’s replaced him with a trio: CFO Frédéric Gagey, who is stepping up as group CEO; and the Air France and KLM CEOs, Franck Terner and Pieter Elbers, who are now also both deputy group CEOs. Meanwhile, former French employment and labor minister Anne-Marie Couderc has become executive chairman of the group’s board.
This setup is being presented as transitional, while the company finds a proper replacement for Janaillac. But it doesn’t seem like the triumvirate will be able to do much to solve the issue that brought Janaillac down: those strikes (which must be viewed in the context of wider pushback against President Emmanuel Macron’s attempted labor reforms).
As Bloomberg notes, that leaves the unions with no-one to talk to. So whoever ends up taking Janaillac’s seat will find it just as hot as he left it—if not more so.
Air France-KLM, along with investors that include Delta and China Eastern, must be hoping this holding pattern is very brief indeed.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/16/air-france-klm-3-ceos/
Air France Finally Has the Go-Ahead to Fix Itself or Fail
After years of labor strife, the government isn’t prepared to bail out its flagship airline.
Founded almost a century ago as a mail carrier to France’s far-flung colonies, Air France has long been an avatar of the country’s glamorous image. It has ferried diplomats and dealmakers to Paris and Hollywood starlets to the festivals in Cannes. In the 1960s it clad cabin crew in Dior. In the ’70s it introduced the Concorde, which linked Paris and New York in less than four hours.
Today the glamour is mostly gone, and Air France—suffering from toxic labor relations, bloated operating costs, and strategic blunders—is more representative of the country’s woes. Jean-Marc Janaillac, chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, the company forged from the 2004 merger of the French and Dutch flagship airlines, on May 4 said he would quit. He has faced a bitter strike that has cost the carrier more than €400 million ($480 million) since February, helping drive shares down by almost half this year. The company on May 15 cobbled together a stopgap management team, with board member Anne-Marie Couderc to serve as interim nonexecutive chairman and Chief Financial Officer Frédéric Gagey as interim CEO, the third person to lead the business in less than two years.
The French government—the company’s biggest shareholder, at 14 percent—says it has no plans to bail the carrier out and that Air France “could disappear” if it doesn’t sharpen its competitive edge. With hundreds of flights canceled in the runup to the crucial summer travel season, “you may see a vicious spiral” as passengers scared by strike threats defect to other carriers, says Chris Tarry, a British aviation consultant.
While its competitors have endured plenty of strikes, recently they’ve forged a cautious peace with unions. Air France, by contrast, seems locked in perpetual conflict as management has failed to convince employees that the carrier must cut costs in response to the growing strength of discounters such as Ryanair Holdings Plc and EasyJet Plc. In 2015 workers protesting planned job cuts stormed the company’s headquarters near Charles de Gaulle Airport, cornering two managers and ripping off their shirts as the men jumped a fence to escape. In the latest showdown, former CEO Janaillac offered a 7 percent wage increase over four years, while unions demanded an immediate 5.1 percent raise. Janaillac put his proposal to a vote of workers. When 55 percent said no, he said he’d step down.
Air France-KLM has struggled to match the success of Lufthansa and IAG in developing low-cost subsidiaries to supplement its full-service offerings. It has a small discount arm, Transavia, but scrapped efforts to expand it internationally in 2015 after pilots walked out over expected lower pay for employees outside France. Then last year it launched Joon, a no-frills carrier with millennial-friendly extras such as craft beer and virtual-reality headsets. While that fits the company’s French-chic image, the two units create “operational and brand confusion,” says Andrew Lobbenberg, an analyst at HSBC Bank Plc. Instead, “the group needs an independent, unified low-cost carrier,” similar to Lufthansa’s Eurowings or IAG’s Vueling.
And while Lufthansa has expanded its cargo, catering, and maintenance units—which provide steady cash to offset fluctuations in passenger traffic—Air France-KLM has trimmed cargo capacity and sold some of its catering operations. Such missteps explain why the company lags behind its competitors, says Beltran Ybarra, a representative of Air France’s main pilots union, SNPL. “It’s strategic choices that are in question, not people,” he says.
The company urgently needs to cut costs, integrate the separately run Air France and KLM units, and develop a strategy to defend its Paris hub, where it’s under increasing attack from low-cost rivals. The scary alternative is that Air France could “head in the direction of Alitalia,” the Italian carrier that—even with massive government support—floundered for decades before sliding into bankruptcy last year, says Jos Versteeg, an analyst at Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers in Amsterdam.
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has vowed to oppose any push to get the government to shore up the airline. In a May 6 television interview, he called the pilots’ wage demands “excessive” and said Air France will have to sort out its problems on its own. “The state is not here to come to the rescue of enterprises that don’t do what’s necessary to remain competitive,” Le Maire said.
Holding firm against the unions would dovetail with President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to reinvigorate the economy. He has revamped labor laws to make it easier to fire workers and is pushing to overhaul the state-controlled railways, triggering repeated strikes by employees. “France’s government could make Air France a laboratory for social reforms and labor flexibility,” says Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. Without dramatic change, the company “risks shrinking and not being able to compete.”
BOTTOM LINE - With losses from strikes approaching $500 million this year and shares down by half, the new management at Air France must restore the carrier’s competitive edge.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...inally-has-the-go-ahead-to-fix-itself-or-fail
Air France and KLM Will Stay Together Despite Recent Turmoil: KLM CEO
KLM CEO Pieter Elbers is honest. He knows some of his employees question why KLM, which is thriving, needs its long-term marriage to Air France. But Elbers knows that in airlines, the biggest carrier usually wins. Plus, he knows there’s no other way forward. For better or worse, Air France and KLM are probably together forever.
The doomsday scenario for Air France-KLM — that Air France disappears while KLM emerges as an independent airline based in Amsterdam— is highly unlikely to occur and is “not a relevant discussion,” KLM CEO Pieter Elbers, one of the three executives temporarily running the company, said Sunday in an interview.
The Franco-Dutch airline is in turmoil. KLM continues to thrive, but Air France is struggling to reach friendly terms with labor unions, and ongoing strikes and labor actions over the past several years have crippled it. In May, the CEO of Air France-KLM, Jean-Marc Janaillac, resigned after France pilots, cabin crew and ground staff rejected his offer of moderate raises in a referendum. The French government, which owns a significant portion of the company, has signaled it will not rescue Air France if it needs help.
The board temporarily replaced Janaillac with what Elbers called a “triumvirate” of three executives — Elbers, Air France CEO Franck Terner, and Frederic Gagey, chief financial offer of Air France-KLM. All also handle their existing jobs, and Terner continues to negotiate with Air France’s unions, but a long-term deal does not appear imminent.
Still, in an interview Sunday in Sydney before the IATA Annual General Meeting, Elbers said it remains business as usual, and he suggested the company will be fine, both short-term, and whenever it adds a permanent CEO. While fuel prices have been rising, it remains a favorable time to operate a global airline, as demand in many regions is robust.
“We are keeping the airline up and running,” Elbers said. “We have a stable situation right now. It is very important for all these employees to know what we’re up to and where we are, while the board is dealing with succession and with the governments.”
RIFTS BETWEEN COMPANIES
However, the labor issues — and Janaillac’s surprise resignation — has exposed rifts between the airlines.
Working with Elbers (pictured below), Dutch unions long ago accepted changes that give KLM a competitive cost base and allow it to compete with most major and low-cost carriers. But French unions mostly have rejected management’s overtures for a similar arrangement, and the broader company has suffered.
In the first quarter, a period when Air France suffered through strikes, the French arm lost 178 millions euros, or $208 million U.S., while the Dutch airline made 60 million Euros in operating income, or $70 million.
For the full-year 2017, Air France made money — 588 euros ($686 million) — but not nearly as much as KLM, which reported income of 910 million ($1.06 billion). This happened even though KLM’s total revenues were significantly less than Air France’s.
Given the recent turmoil, some groups, including the French government, have wondered if its all worth it. The government owns 14 percent of the company, and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last month that the airline could disappear, though Elbers downplayed those threats, and said a deal with labor should get done.
“There were some statements made by the French government,” Elbers said. “It’s clear in France, there a lot of reforms are going on. We should look also here to the broader context of reforming and some of the reforms going on in France.”
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, some of KLM’s workers have questioned whether they need the French arm. In a letter last month to employees, Elbers said he had a “understanding for the anger” felt by workers but asked them to remain positive. On Sunday, he said some employees are still skeptical.
“Clearly these strikes are seen not only by customers but also internally as putting the group back rather than forwards,” Elbers said.
AIRLINES NEED EACH OTHER
Elbers said KLM needs its French sibling, albeit with a more competitive cost structure, and called the idea that the two airlines counterproductive.
Almost everywhere in the world, he noted, the largest airlines have an edge, and on its own, KLM likely would struggle against Lufthansa Group and International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. Those two companies, along with Air France-KLM, control much of the European market. Smaller airlines not aligned with a large group, like Polish airline LOT or Tap Air Portugal, sometimes struggle to compete.
“It is a world of giants,” Elbers said. “If we look to the European consolidation, which is much slower than the consolidation in the U.S. the fact that Air France and KLM are together is really an asset. It’s an asset in terms of our network, it’s an asset in terms of a customer basis, it’s an asset to our partnership. We look to Delta and the deep cooperation we have with Delta in … Amsterdam and Paris. You really have to be of significant size there to do that.”
Long-term, Elbers said the company will be fine.
“If you see where we were at the end of ’17, the results have improved, both at Air France and KLM,” he said. “Transatlantic was thriving. Our network in countries like Brazil was developing, so really things were moving in the right direction. It is bad today with the strikes, there’s no doubt about it, but if you look at the bigger picture, it’s of two strong hubs and two strong brands, a great network, a very loyal customer base. They are still there.”
https://skift.com/2018/06/03/air-france-and-klm-will-stay-together-despite-recent-turmoil-klm-ceo/
The Franco-Dutch airline is in turmoil. KLM continues to thrive, but Air France is struggling to reach friendly terms with labor unions, and ongoing strikes and labor actions over the past several years have crippled it. In May, the CEO of Air France-KLM, Jean-Marc Janaillac, resigned after France pilots, cabin crew and ground staff rejected his offer of moderate raises in a referendum. The French government, which owns a significant portion of the company, has signaled it will not rescue Air France if it needs help.
The board temporarily replaced Janaillac with what Elbers called a “triumvirate” of three executives — Elbers, Air France CEO Franck Terner, and Frederic Gagey, chief financial offer of Air France-KLM. All also handle their existing jobs, and Terner continues to negotiate with Air France’s unions, but a long-term deal does not appear imminent.
“We are keeping the airline up and running,” Elbers said. “We have a stable situation right now. It is very important for all these employees to know what we’re up to and where we are, while the board is dealing with succession and with the governments.”
RIFTS BETWEEN COMPANIES
However, the labor issues — and Janaillac’s surprise resignation — has exposed rifts between the airlines.
Working with Elbers (pictured below), Dutch unions long ago accepted changes that give KLM a competitive cost base and allow it to compete with most major and low-cost carriers. But French unions mostly have rejected management’s overtures for a similar arrangement, and the broader company has suffered.
In the first quarter, a period when Air France suffered through strikes, the French arm lost 178 millions euros, or $208 million U.S., while the Dutch airline made 60 million Euros in operating income, or $70 million.
For the full-year 2017, Air France made money — 588 euros ($686 million) — but not nearly as much as KLM, which reported income of 910 million ($1.06 billion). This happened even though KLM’s total revenues were significantly less than Air France’s.
“There were some statements made by the French government,” Elbers said. “It’s clear in France, there a lot of reforms are going on. We should look also here to the broader context of reforming and some of the reforms going on in France.”
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, some of KLM’s workers have questioned whether they need the French arm. In a letter last month to employees, Elbers said he had a “understanding for the anger” felt by workers but asked them to remain positive. On Sunday, he said some employees are still skeptical.
“Clearly these strikes are seen not only by customers but also internally as putting the group back rather than forwards,” Elbers said.
AIRLINES NEED EACH OTHER
Elbers said KLM needs its French sibling, albeit with a more competitive cost structure, and called the idea that the two airlines counterproductive.
Almost everywhere in the world, he noted, the largest airlines have an edge, and on its own, KLM likely would struggle against Lufthansa Group and International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. Those two companies, along with Air France-KLM, control much of the European market. Smaller airlines not aligned with a large group, like Polish airline LOT or Tap Air Portugal, sometimes struggle to compete.
“It is a world of giants,” Elbers said. “If we look to the European consolidation, which is much slower than the consolidation in the U.S. the fact that Air France and KLM are together is really an asset. It’s an asset in terms of our network, it’s an asset in terms of a customer basis, it’s an asset to our partnership. We look to Delta and the deep cooperation we have with Delta in … Amsterdam and Paris. You really have to be of significant size there to do that.”
Long-term, Elbers said the company will be fine.
“If you see where we were at the end of ’17, the results have improved, both at Air France and KLM,” he said. “Transatlantic was thriving. Our network in countries like Brazil was developing, so really things were moving in the right direction. It is bad today with the strikes, there’s no doubt about it, but if you look at the bigger picture, it’s of two strong hubs and two strong brands, a great network, a very loyal customer base. They are still there.”
https://skift.com/2018/06/03/air-france-and-klm-will-stay-together-despite-recent-turmoil-klm-ceo/
Quoto. Cosa c'entri Macron (che tra l'altro è in carica da relativamente 'poco') Dio solo lo sa.
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Ma scherzi, anni e anni di agitazioni, accordini durati quanto l'incarico a Cottarelli e di nuovo agitazioni, rivendicazioni e mentalità che forse ha eguali sono in AZ. Mica saranno i sindacati? Piuttosto Sarkozy e Gheddafi.
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La "colpa" di Macron è di voler modernizzare la Francia tagliando un filo le unghie ai sindacati locali. Per cui preparatevi a sentirne dire peste e corna per i prossimi millemila anni
Riporto il pezzo più interessante di una comunicazione sindacale ripresa da Reuters. Sindacati, da quanto emerge, ostili alla candidatura di Benjamin Smith come nuovo CEO del vettore francese —
https://fr.reuters.com/article/topNews/idFRKBN1L10OY-OFRTP
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https://fr.reuters.com/article/topNews/idFRKBN1L10OY-OFRTP
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Beh, e' sempre bello avere un'ulteriore prova del fatto che che i bibbitari, per usare di nuovo questo termine meraviglioso che ho appena imparato, non sono una prerogativa soltanto italiana.
Io lo assumerei ad occhi chiusi solo per il fatto che i sindacati siano contrari, anche se non avesse fatto manco l’asilo.
Parigi, 16 ago. (AdnKronos) – Il Cda di Air France – Klm ha nominato l’attuale Chief Operating Officer di Air Canada, Benjamin Smith nuovo Ceo del gruppo franco-olandese. Lo rende noto Af-Klm in un comunicato al termine della riunione del board precisando che Smith “assumerà il suo incarico entro il 30 settembre 2018”. Intanto la governance di transizione resterà in carica, ossia con Anne-Marie Couderc, presidente non esecutivo del Cda di Air France-Klm e di d’Air France e il Comitato di direzione collegiale del gruppo.
Benjamin Smith nuovo DG di Air France-KLM
Benjamin Smith, ex numero due di Air Canada, da ieri è il nuovo direttore generale del gruppo francolandese. È canadese ma nato a Londra da madre di Hong Kong e padre australiano.
Si è presentato ai dipendenti col seguente video: https://youtu.be/NI_ZNfWaycc
Tocca vari punti: compagnie a basso costo e del Golfo, compagnie sparite od in difficoltà (menziona Alitalia) e la voglia di rendere il gruppo nuovamente numero 1.
Ha pure annunciato che investirà la metà del suo salario fisso in azioni di Air France-KLM:
https://mobile.ttgitalia.com/storie...ceo_compra_le_azioni_smith_in_air_france-klm/
Benjamin Smith, ex numero due di Air Canada, da ieri è il nuovo direttore generale del gruppo francolandese. È canadese ma nato a Londra da madre di Hong Kong e padre australiano.
Si è presentato ai dipendenti col seguente video: https://youtu.be/NI_ZNfWaycc
Tocca vari punti: compagnie a basso costo e del Golfo, compagnie sparite od in difficoltà (menziona Alitalia) e la voglia di rendere il gruppo nuovamente numero 1.
Ha pure annunciato che investirà la metà del suo salario fisso in azioni di Air France-KLM:
https://mobile.ttgitalia.com/storie...ceo_compra_le_azioni_smith_in_air_france-klm/
I 99 piloti meglio pagati di Air France guadagnano circa 300 mila euro lordi all'anno. Lo rivelano alcuni documenti acquisiti dal giornale Libération. Una notizia destinata a scatenare nuove polemiche all'interno della compagnia di bandiera francese. In effetti, il salario medio degli oltre 2.800 piloti del vettore è ben inferiore a questo livello.
Air France si è rifiutata di commentare queste cifre, ma ha precisato che i piloti più pagati hanno una lunga esperienza, svolgono funzioni di inquadramento e di formazione e volano sugli apparecchi più grandi. Ma soprattutto il loro stipendio è in linea con quello dei loro colleghi di British Airways, Lufthansa o Klm. La polemica è solo l'ultima di una serie: nei mesi scorsi per esempio è emerso che lo stipendio del nuovo amministratore delegato, il canadese Ben Smith, potrà a termine raggiungere i 4,25 milioni di euro, il triplo di quello del suo predecessore Jean-Marc Janaillac.
ANSA
Air France si è rifiutata di commentare queste cifre, ma ha precisato che i piloti più pagati hanno una lunga esperienza, svolgono funzioni di inquadramento e di formazione e volano sugli apparecchi più grandi. Ma soprattutto il loro stipendio è in linea con quello dei loro colleghi di British Airways, Lufthansa o Klm. La polemica è solo l'ultima di una serie: nei mesi scorsi per esempio è emerso che lo stipendio del nuovo amministratore delegato, il canadese Ben Smith, potrà a termine raggiungere i 4,25 milioni di euro, il triplo di quello del suo predecessore Jean-Marc Janaillac.
ANSA
BREAKING | Air France finally reaches agreement with unions
A wage agreement has been found between Air France and its unions on October 19, 2018. The proposals of the recently appointed CEO Ben Smith were approved by 76% of the workers. Five out of seven worker unions signed the agreement.
The agreement has been reached after two days of negotiations, according to French media Franceinfo. It includes a first wage increase of 2% in 2018 and another one in 2019.
The SNPL and the CGT, two of the workers unions which have been asking for a 6% wage increase following a profitable year in 2017, did not sign the agreement.
On May 4, 2018, former CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac had resigned following the refusal of a draft agreement that offered a 7% salary increase spread over the next four years, starting with a 2% increase in 2018.
Benjamin Smith, former second in command at Air Canada, was officially named CEO of Air France-KLM group by the board of directors on August 16, 2018, and took office on September 17, 2018.
Since the beginning of the year, strikes costed the company more than €300 million
A wage agreement has been found between Air France and its unions on October 19, 2018. The proposals of the recently appointed CEO Ben Smith were approved by 76% of the workers. Five out of seven worker unions signed the agreement.
The agreement has been reached after two days of negotiations, according to French media Franceinfo. It includes a first wage increase of 2% in 2018 and another one in 2019.
The SNPL and the CGT, two of the workers unions which have been asking for a 6% wage increase following a profitable year in 2017, did not sign the agreement.
On May 4, 2018, former CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac had resigned following the refusal of a draft agreement that offered a 7% salary increase spread over the next four years, starting with a 2% increase in 2018.
Benjamin Smith, former second in command at Air Canada, was officially named CEO of Air France-KLM group by the board of directors on August 16, 2018, and took office on September 17, 2018.
Since the beginning of the year, strikes costed the company more than €300 million
Qualche spunto dall'articolo di cui sopra:
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- Potenziale riduzione a livello dirigenziale con più 'integrazione' AF-KL;
- Incertezza sul brand Joon (BS non sembra molto convinto e sembra propenso ad un ritorno ai 'main brands only' i.e. AF-KL);
- Armonizzazione della flotta;
- 'Dubbi' sul futuro del 380 in AF con potenziali ricadute sull'installazione delle nuove poltrone.
G