Air France cuts half of long-haul services

Air France will fly only about half of its long-haul flights tomorrow as more pilots and other workers walked out on the second day of a four-day protest against a proposed strike-notification law. The French unit of Air France-KLM Group expects to serve "more than 50 per cent" of overseas flights and will offer 75 per cent of short- and medium-haul flights, a spokeswoman said by telephone yesterday. The Paris-based airline maintained 85 per cent of long-haul flights and more than three-quarters of its shorter services on Monday, the spokeswoman said. Unions are protesting a bill to be considered by the French Senate that would require each employee planning to strike to give their companies 48 hours' notice. The walkout, planned to extend through tomorrow, comes less than three months after Alexandre de Junaic took charge as chief executive at Air France, succeeding Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, who left amid financial losses. The parent airline will post a loss of "several hundred million euros" for 2011 after fuel costs increased, de Juniac told French legislators on January 25. Air France-KLM fell as much as 3.6 per cent to €4.94 and was trading down 3.4 per cent in early morning in Paris.