Air France is to cut up to 3,000 more posts in the next two years as the company responds to a significant downturn in traffic and profit.
The French flag carrier had already announced it was blocking recruitment and freezing the replacement of retiring staff in February, a decision that could lead to 1,200 jobs disappearing.
Today's news is an acceleration of that process and follows a profit warning issued by Air France at the end of last month.
"It [involves] 2,500 to 3,000 jobs from 2009/2010 and 2010/2011," says an Air France spokeswoman. "All areas of the company such as the hub, cabin crew and pilots [are affected] and this is in addition to the 1,200 jobs we announced before.
"There is a crisis - if you look at our traffic you will rapidly understand."
Air France's predicament is clear from the swift change of posting a €450 million ($597 million) profit last year, to announcing last month it would record a €200 million operating loss for the period 2008/2009.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
