Air France Cabin Crew Start Week-Long Strike

A week-long strike by cabin crew at Air France has caused the cancellation of around 13 percent of the carrier’s flights planned for Wednesday.

For Thursday, the airline will cancel around 30 percent of short and medium-haul flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle, while keeping around 90 percent of long-haul flights running. Around 80 percent of domestic flights will also operate, it said.

The airline is trying to keep flights running between Paris and Amsterdam to allow transfer passengers onto the KLM network, which is not affected by the strike.

The strike could cost more than EUR€40 million, the chief financial officer of the carrier's parent group said.

Two of the airline's cabin crew unions called the strike, which started on Wednesday after talks on renewing a collective agreement broke down.

Parent group Air France-KLM earlier on Wednesday said a strike by pilots in June had cost it around EUR€40 million and CFO Pierre-Francois Riolacci said the cabin crew strike could cost more than that, or "several dozens of million euros".